841 words

As we use to say around here, after the famous book title: Im Westen nichts Neues. That’s “Nothing new to report from the West,” but you might know it as All Quiet on the Western Front. (Whoever thought that this was a fitting translation?)

It’s not that there’s nothing new to report, but it’s mainly unspectacular. Everything went exactly as expected with the European Union elections. The only big surprise was Macron’s decision to hold new national elections in France as a result of the voters’ obvious disapproval of the current government’s politics. You have to give it to the French: They don’t do anything by halves.

As for the rest, you have the dramatic headlines and tweets (or X posts, as they are called these days) of the mainstream, and you have the triumphant and/or gloating headlines and tweets from everybody on the Right. All of them use the same old, tired buzzwords. Ein Leben in Schlagworten, I call it; “a life in buzzwords.”

There were apparently a few cases of voter fraud here in Germany, and some Wahlhelfer (polling clerks) had tweeted in advance that they were going to commit fraud; that’s the social media generation for you. I have worked as a polling clerk many times over the years, and frankly, it’s not that easy to pull off fraud. It certainly is possible; no doubt about that. But since you’re working with a randomly-chosen team all the time, it requires a fair bit of planning. Not that I have personal experience, mind. I’m just familiar with the mechanics.

As expected, Alternative for Germany (AfD) did well, coming in second place at 15.9% of the votes, and everybody either cheered or scrambled to save democracy. Also as expected, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) — the latter basically being the Bavarian branch of the CDU, which is Angela Merkel’s party — got the most votes for a combined total of 30%.

I have watched this phenomenon ever since I first became conscious of such things as elections and parties. Swing voters are real. In one election, they vote CDU. They then get frustrated by the CDU’s politics and vote for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) — the other big, respectable mainstream party — in the next election. Then they get frustrated by the SPD’s politics and, having forgotten that they had been unhappy with the CDU’s politics before, they vote CDU in the next election. It’s ridiculous beyond words, but it’s a thing.

So yeah, the same people who complain about how bad things are and that immigration is getting out of hand go and vote for the party that got us into this mess in the first place. Can you really blame our self-styled elites for viewing voters as a herd of cattle?

The Greens party lost 42% of its voters, which was a well-deserved achievement. Undeterred, the Greens then tweeted that they had never been so many as they are now. Ha ha. That got a few laughs. They also demanded that Germany continue to adhere to the European Green Deal so that she will not fall behind the United States and China economically. Um, yeah. Germany has fallen behind the US and China economically because of the Green Deal. You really can’t make this up. But what do you expect from people who can’t even do basic math and think losing 42% is a win?

Sahra Wagenknecht’s new party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, or BSW) ended up with a respectable 6.2% of the votes. Little reported was the fact that the new Turkish-Islamic party, the Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening (DAVA), got 41.1% of the votes in a city district of Duisburg. I repeat: 41.1%. Now, this was only one district, but it still means that DAVA came to 2.5% in Duisburg overall, which is the highest result I could find in the known Muslim hotspots of Germany. Elsewhere, DAVA never passed the 2% line. Still, keep in mind that this was the first time that DAVA had ever competed in an election. The shape of things to come, I’ll bet.

Considering these dismal results for democracy,™ the German mainstream media quickly pounced on the fact that Hungary’s Viktor Orbán finally had a strong “challenger” who would hopefully save those poor Hungarians from their dictatorial leader (and probably import some much-needed migrants). Look, we all know that Orbán won’t stay in office indefinitely. These people really are getting desperate.

So, what does all of this mean for the EU? (Not Europe, as our EU elites and mainstream media always claim.) I have no idea. Right-wing parties have certainly gained ground, but whether that will actually lead to any positive changes remains to be seen. In the meantime, the establishment will ramp up its efforts to stay in power. I definitely expect to see increasing pressure to ban the AfD for good now.