‘The West has deceived us’

 Christoph Zwickler will not be known to most people in Germany. The “Berliner Zeitung” reveals that he studied political science, philosophy, history and economics and has been the chairman of a local electoral association in southern Hesse since 2016. The 21 September edition of the newspaper gave him two whole pages of space to explain his thoughts as part of its “open-source initiative” – where articles can be published that do not originate from the editorial team. The title and introduction alone arouse interest: “Because the West has broken its promises. It is often inferred from the high approval ratings for the AfD that the East is hostile to democracy and ungrateful. Our author, however, thinks so: Pointing out deceptions is absolutely appropriate”.
    His reasoning: In the former GDR, many associated the old Federal Republic with “prosperity for all” through a social market economy, freedom and diversity of opinion, appreciation also for minority opinions, equal rights for different opinions and the search for compromise in political decisions. All of this has changed step by step since 1990 in a Germany that has become larger and more powerful. Especially since the chancellorship of Angela Merkel. The “lack of alternative” postulated by the Chancellor has taken the place of equal diversity of opinion, previously well-liked “lateral thinkers” have become troublemakers, and the mainstream media no longer see themselves as attentive critics of the prevailing policy, but as pillories for its critics. Last but not least: The market economy is becoming less and less “social”.
    The article concludes: “Even today, all of this is registered more quickly in the East than in the West. People react more sensitively; they consciously deal with two systems and make comparisons. The Federal Republic was not a matter of course here. It describes a system that the East came to terms with and that many people were happy to choose. It is these finer antennae for the lived order and its contradictions that make the mood levels in the East documented by the elections swing further. The election results in Saxony and Thuringia are an expression of broken promises.”
    Brandenburg has now also voted. Some people will say: It went well once again. The SPD has received a relative majority of votes and can continue to govern – with whomever. What is forgotten is that the voters in Brandenburg – as in Saxony and Thuringia three weeks earlier – also gave a lot of votes to the political pariahs of the western mainstream, the AfD and the BSW – 43 per cent – and almost 30 per cent to the AfD, which is the party most marginalised by the mainstream. 77 per cent of those surveyed in Brandenburg on election day are dissatisfied with the federal government. But widespread unconstitutional attitudes among voters were not to be found this time either. On the contrary, 85 per cent think that democracy is a good form of government. However: 54 per cent are dissatisfied with the functioning of democracy in Germany – significantly more than in Germany as a whole – and 63 per cent are “very worried” that “democracy and the rule of law are in danger”. In addition, 67 per cent – 8 per cent more than 5 years ago – believe that “East Germans are still second-class citizens in many places.”
    At the end of his article, Christoph Zwickler writes: “Pointing out deceptions is not ingratitude. Perhaps this will finally be recognised after the elections in Brandenburg at the latest.”
    However, Federal Chancellor and SPD politician Olaf Scholz said after the elections in Brandenburg: “It’s great that we won.” He did not speak of a correction of previous policies.                                           •