Finances, anger and tight leadership

2023-06-26 10:07:38
HomeCultureThis is why people vote for the AfD: finances, anger and tight leadership

19 percent of our fellow citizens would be willing to vote for the AfD. They even did it in Sonneberg. What is the driving force behind this choice? Our columnist asked around.

Anselm Neft

Björn Höcke, Stephan Brandner and Tino Chrupalla: The AfD candidate Robert Stuhlmann was elected district administrator in Sonneberg on Sunday.Jakob Schröter/imago

This is the latest installment in Anselm Neft’s humorous column Spot the Error.

The AfD is at an all-time high. According to current polls, a good 19 percent would vote for the party with the red phallus symbol. But what are the motivations of existing and potential voters? As a rabid reporter, Anselm Neft has interviewed hundreds of them over the past few weeks and has been able to discover four key motivations.

Party of Financial Experts

A surprising number of party sympathizers are veritable arithmeticians and understand more about the state budget than the average. Accordingly, the election program of the AfD is particularly attractive for them: instead of wasting money on economic refugees and green eco-fantasies (climate protection!) who are already drowning in the Mediterranean Sea as a result of the existing asylum law, the party relies on five fiscally cunning plans: 1. Completely abolish inheritance and wealth taxes or not introduce it at all. 2. Lower the state quota. 3. At the same time finance the pension from the state. 4. Lower taxes. 5. Get out of the euro and out of the EU!

From an economic point of view, these projects are so ingenious that one wonders why the other parties didn’t think of it. Everyone pays less taxes, the state spends less, only when it comes to pensions does it pack a lot so that immigrants don’t have to close the future pension gap. Finally get out of the EU, after all, Germany pays the highest net amounts to Brussels and has nothing to do with it some silly economic benefits, which do not even mean four times the expenditure. England has it with that Brexit demonstrated: right-wing populist demands are paying off. For the other countries.

Fed up with left-green mainstream

Gendergaga, Klimaschmuh and then deliver tanks to the Ukraine, so that we have to buy all the heat pumps here – Greens like Habeck and Baerbock stand above all for hot air – no wonder that the climate is getting too warm for them. AfD voters have a better plan for Germany: free ride for free citizens three children per bio-German woman and schnitzel from semi-happy cows for everyone. And somehow save resources. Because of “homeland security”. This pleases many voters, who understandably do not want to give up familiar ways of life just because a sack of rice is said to fall over in China because of them. The motto “Think locally and hardly act” becomes particularly attractive when gas and electricity are becoming more expensive, inflation is rife and boulette and men’s dishes in the corner pub suddenly cost 50 cents more. Respectively!

Maren Kaschner

To the author

Anselm Neft, born near Bonn in 1973, studied unrelated subjects, wrote his master’s thesis on contemporary Satanism, worked through jobs ranging from dishwasher to management consultant and now lives as a freelance author and writer in Hamburg. There he runs the literary podcast “laxbrunchand writes articles and books. His latest novel is called “Late Children” and was published by Rowohlt-Verlag. He writes the humorous column “Find the error” for the Berliner Zeitung.

This general anger

A large proportion of those surveyed also cited general dissatisfaction as their motivation for choosing the AfD. “Life used to be better,” says Horst Zipfel (69) from Dinslaken, for example. “I wasn’t old and meaningless then.” Herta Wiesenschreck (78) from Quedlinburg hits the same note: “Everything is getting more and more shitty! I turn on the TV and instantly get angry. Then I go outside, see the garbage and that nobody says hello and I get even more angry. Then I go back in, see my husband sitting there and get so angry that I immediately want to vote for the AfD.”

Many AfD voters state that beaten as children to have become It didn’t harm them, they deserved it. But now they would wish that others would really get their face in the face. Peter Hirsch (45) puts it this way: “There is this huge anger at everyone who doesn’t pull themselves together and behave. I learned it too!” Victor Engelmann (65), a Russian-German immigrant from the Orenburg Oblast, is also angry: “If you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat either! Why shouldn’t that apply in Germany today? Bums, Moslems and climate gluers to the Gulag!”

longing for leadership

Many AfD voters are not Nazis. But some do. It is precisely these who state that they long for a homogeneous national state with a strong body of people under strong leadership. “A strong leader state is also conceivable without the AfD,” says Thor Stramm (26) from Nordhausen. “On the way there, however, they are useful idiots for our ‘Network 88’.” The politically interested Jungmann continues: “Of course, Goldman Sachs lesbians like Weidel will have to go. They should give birth and cook instead of talking about peace with Russia. Slavic subhumans should serve.” Heidrun Stramm (56) is also hoping for Björn Höcke to become chancellor: “The man has guts and knows what a people needs. A tight war. That gets the youth on track! And temporarily also the economy, if the state-financed pension doesn’t work out that way after all.”

Do you have feedback or a story? Write us! [email protected]