The result of the German election: A brand-new fascism
Researcher – Emrah Cilasun, Berlin
Germany has held its election. There’s no point in beating around the bush. The truth is bitter but undeniable. Even though the fascist party AfD (Alternative for Germany) came in second, fascism still won. A brand-new fascism has emerged from the ballot box. Eighty years after the end of World War II when German fascism, the primary culprit behind the war that claimed 56 million lives, was supposedly erased from memory under the solemn vow of "never again", it has now secured 10,327,148 votes. In other words, with the support of 20.8% of the electorate, it has guaranteed 152 seats in the Federal Parliament.
Back in 2013, the party that dismissed as insignificant, entered parliament just four years after its founding, winning 12% of the vote, it was belittled as merely "right-wing populist." At the time, there were optimistic reassurances: "The system is too strong; checks and balances won’t allow them to gain power." And and even arguments such as “these are not fascists, they are populists” had started in those years. Fortunately, the fascists were not talking from their bellies. From those comparing World War II to "a mere bird dropping in Germany’s great history" to those proclaiming, "The day after we take power, we will deport 200,000 refugees," there was no limit to how far they would escalate facist rhetoric. For what was at stake here was the re-polarisation of an entire society on the basis of the chauvinism, values, customs and traditions of the great nation. From the party organisation to the streets, it was the fascists who dealt with politics day by day, who had experience. And the fascists had started an ideological offensive step by step since 2013.
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The very values that fascists use to polarize society have, in reverse, also been the raw material of the liberal glue holding society together since 1945. After all, capitalist production relations have ultimately still not transcended the "nation-state" paradigm. Of course, the national anthem and the flag were sacred. Of course, the final say over a woman's womb would be dictated by law. Of course, the "black head" arriving from the Third World would be expected to submit to the assimilation process euphemistically called "integration." And in any case, supermarket shelves would be stocked with an endless variety of goods poured in from all corners of the world; in the sweatshops and factories of the Global South, from screws to textiles, from microchips to lithium, everything would be "collectively produced, privately expropriated" and funneled to the epicenter of capital, the "motherland," and no one would dare ask, "Where does all this abundance come from?"
On the contrary, global affairs would prompt a Social Democratic defense minister in 2002 to declare, "Germany's interests begin in the Hindu Kush," leading to a military deployment to Afghanistan, complete with marching bands. And it wouldn’t matter whether one was from the left or the right, every political actor would salute in unison. Even worse, the 2009 bombing in Kunduz, ordered by a German colonel, which killed over 100 civilians, would no longer even be a topic of discussion today.
What determines today's agenda are, fundamentally, political-ideological and geopolitical interests aligned with economic interests. And the reality is that these interests are being swept along by the storm of fascists. Naturally, all actors from both the center-right and center-left are being affected by this storm. Whether it’s in their opposition to climate activists' protests or in their intolerance toward Palestinian symbols at demonstrations against fascists, the sails of all bourgeois democratic political actors are, one way or another, being inflated by the fascists' storm. Imitating fascists, copying their rhetoric, has become quite the trend.
With the original standing firm with its 152 seats and extending its hand, CDU’s decision to form a coalition with the Social Democrats instead of AfD, despite holding 208 seats, is a necessity for preserving bourgeois democracy, which has been riddled with holes like Swiss cheese. But whether this alliance will withstand the pressures of global necessities and domestic promises for four years remains highly uncertain. (David Broder, CNN, February 24, 2025)
Meanwhile, as the world keeps turning under these circumstances, German capital has fractured into three factions. To borrow terminology from Ümit Akçay (who, in turn, borrows from Schneider): "The first faction is the Ordoliberal-Defensive Group, which advocates for Germany’s SME-focused economic structure known as Mittelstand. The second faction is the World Market-Oriented Strategic Group, which represents large-scale manufacturing firms and their interests in global markets. The third faction is the Social Democratic Interventionist Group." (Akçay, Gazete Duvar, January 16, 2025)
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If you ask what these three factions stand for, according to Akçay, the first group "combines their trust in free market mechanisms with their criticisms of selective state interventions." The second group "traditionally consists of large, internationalized firms and critical sectors contributing to exports, advocating for industrial policy goals such as 'technological sovereignty' and 'creating national champions.'" The third group, meanwhile, "demands that the state focus on strategic industries and prioritize employment, advocating for interventionist approaches in industrial policies." And while, as the author notes, "the representation is not exact," AfD aligns with the "Defensive Group," while CDU and SPD represent the other two factions. Akçay concludes his January article with a prediction: "In the upcoming elections, the Defensive Group will be split between AfD and CDU." What alliances and fractures will emerge among these factions due to the anarchic dynamic of capital on a global scale? We don’t know. But we do know that when Hitler came to power in 1933, he eventually brought those within German capital who opposed him into line.
It is also clear that the January 9 meeting on X between Elon Musk and AfD Chancellor candidate Weidel was not just a political stunt aimed at the public but something more. Could Musk, leveraging the power of the Trump regime, be aiming to closely monitor the European market and further divide and weaken the three German capital factions Akçay described? Some suspicions about this are already emerging. On the other hand, within AfD, there exists a long-standing ("fascist populist") tendency that downplays the scale, power, and global influence of German capital while playing the victim, seeing Germany as a U.S. "colony" since 1945. This faction has long harbored resentment toward Weidel, who, in her exchanges with Musk, proudly advocates "liberal economic policies." Yet, for a fascist party preoccupied with normalizing itself, shaping public discourse, and consolidating its position, treating the openly queer Weidel like nail polish on a donkey’s hoof, something to be tolerated but fundamentally unwelcome is an inevitability, not just in terms of economic policy but also moral values. Ultimately, the fascism that has emerged from the ballot box cannot be explained as either "pure evil" or some delusion concocted by lunatics. Fascism is a product of the contradictions generated by the capitalist-imperialist world, the other face of bourgeois dictatorship. It may rise through the ballot box, but once fortified, it does not leave through the ballot box.
Note: This article is translated from the original Turkish version titled Almanya seçiminin sonucu: Nur topu gibi bir faşizm, published in BirGün newspaper on February 26, 2025.
