The German federal election brought about an all-too-familiar result, with the far-right AfD gaining huge momentum and the CDU securing the most votes. This outcome highlights the deepening political fragmentation within Germany and the European Union at large.
The AfD’s rise signifies a dangerous shift in public sentiment, fueled by economic stagnation and a failure of centrist parties to address fundamental socio-economic grievances. Meanwhile, the CDU’s position remains one of maintaining the status quo, failing to recognize that the status quo is precisely what is driving voters toward the far right.
In a series of posts on X, our co-founder Yanis Varoufakis has made his feelings clear on the German elections, highlighting both their paradoxical nature and the dangers of ignoring the tectonic shifts in the political landscape. His warnings serve as a crucial reminder that unless meaningful change is pursued, Europe risks descending into an era of deeper instability and reactionary politics.
“This German federal election is a paradox. Simultaneously irrelevant – in the sense that it will result into another variant of the same, quasi permanent, coalition of Christian & Social Democrats, perhaps with a splattering of the pseudo-Greens, the same coalition that put Germany on the road to a secular slump, will continue to rule.
“And, at once, an utterly transformational election – in the sense that it marks the tremendous rise of the ultra-rightist AfD which has already brought in the normalisation of its toxic xenophobia (that the victors, the CDU/CSU, have fully adopted).
“In the medium run, nothing will change in a Germany that cannot afford to stay the same. The new Merz government, out of fear that the AfD will be nibbling at his conservative electoral base from the right, will do none of the three things that are desperately needed:
- Massive investment to overcome the ill effects of 17 years of zero net investment caused by the inane combination of austerity for the many and massive money printing for the few
- A European fiscal union without which the EU, and thus, Germany will continue to slide into irrelevance
- The reversal of Germany’s slide into xenophobia and authoritarianism.
“By not doing any of this – by continuing business as usual when business cannot go on as usual – Mr Merz will end up a tragic figure, unwittingly boosting the ultra right. (Just like Macron, the great big liberal hope, ended up reinforcing Le Pen in France.)
“This is why DiEM25, with its parties MERA25 in Germany, Greece, Italy and Holland, is persevering. Join us at http://diem25.org.”
Then, in a later post responding to a piece in the Financial Times by Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, Laura Pitel and Olaf Storbeck, Yanis made a point of mentioning the contradictions in Europe’s approach to autonomy. The idea of a Europe free from US influence is appealing, but the mechanisms proposed to achieve it are fundamentally flawed.
“Sounds great: A Europe that has won its independence from the US. Love it! But how is Mr Merz proposing to do this when his party, and he personally, have opposed (and continue to oppose) a political and fiscal union? Who will pay for Europe’s essential investment drive?
“Germany doesn’t have the dough and, at the same time, will not contemplate a common Treasury with the power to tax and borrow to the tune of at least 30% of EU GDP (without which it is macroeconomically insignificant and, from an investment point of view, irrelevant).
“As for the pipe dream of a European army, let’s set aside all (crucial) objections to the need for one. Let’s for a moment concede, as a mental experiment, that Europe needs a European army. [Nb. I am adamant that Europe needs no such monstrosity – but, for a moment, let’s assume it does, for argument’s sake.] Who will send this new European army into battle? Who will authorise these men and women to go into the battlefields with the intent to kill and be killed? Ursula von der Leyen? The half-crazy Kaja Kallas? On whose authority? And with what democratic legitimisation?
“To sum up, Europe’s leaders have been steeped into US vassalage (i.e., Atlanticism) for so long that they lack the basic analytical skills to recognise how absurd they sound now that Trump has cut them loose. And the worst part of it that in such a Europe, where our centrist rulers oscillate between idiocy and incompetence, the new fascists lurk, ready and willing to turn us against each other in order to reap the bitter harvest of discord, xenophobia and warmongering. Just as they did in the 1930s.”
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