Planet Normal: AfD election surge exposes deep political divisions across Germany
On the latest Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above, columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson speak to author Ross Clarke about his latest book, Far from Eutopia: How Europe is failing – and Britain could do better. They discuss missed economic opportunities of Brexit and the recent election in Germany where the Alternative for Deutschland gained around 40% of the vote.
Political commentator Ross Clark believes the election outcome highlights growing dissatisfaction among German voters, particularly the working class, with the country's economic trajectory and immigration policies, and that Germany's elite had 'no real intention of addressing the fundamental concerns of the electorate.'
One of the central themes of Ross' book discusses post war Europe, ' After the Second World War there's a fundamental difference in the European attitude to democracy, as opposed to the U.S; the European Convention on Human Rights is full of provisions of how to protect the people against themselves.'
'You cannot ignore what those people [voting for the AfD] were trying to say, which is that their economic and social model is not enriching them and we are going to have these high-minded established parties [saying] you are all fascists and therefore we're not going to let you in government.'
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