German parliamentary elections – a review

As a German-Swiss dual citizen, I am watching the federal elections of 23 February with a heartfelt but also rational distance. I very much hope German politics to improve – more freedom and justice for my fellow Germans in terms of domestic policy. In terms of foreign policy, more German efforts to live in peace with all countries in the world. However, I didn’t expect much from the election result either.

The approximate distribution of votes had already become apparent in the weeks beforehand. If the CDU/CSU and SPD formed the new coalition government, it would not come as a surprise. But it would also be no cause for relief or even joy.

Election results …

Nevertheless, there are results worth reflecting on. For example: voter turnout was higher than it had been for almost 40 years: 82.5 per cent. The last time it was higher was in 1987 with 84.3 per cent. Election researchers say that the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Die Linke in particular benefited from this. More “dissatisfied” citizens voted. But it can also be put another way: more and more citizens not only want a different policy, they are also expressing this – this time with their vote.
  Or the markedly different election results in western and eastern Germany: the AfD achieved 18 per cent of the vote in the west and 32 per cent in the east – and is now by far the strongest political force there; Die Linke achieved 7.6 per cent in the west and 13.4 per cent in the east; the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, 3.9 per cent in the west and 9.3 per cent in the east. These three parties, often marginalised by the majority of the West German power elites and media, together achieved an absolute majority of votes in East Germany: 54.7 per cent.
  Or: Many young voters aged 18-24 voted for Die Linke or the AfD: 25 per cent for Die Linke and 22 per cent for the AfD. Together, that is almost half of all young voters.
  Or: 23 directly elected MPs in their constituencies cannot enter the Bundestag because their party did not win enough second votes (for the party) in the constituency. This is the result of a change in electoral law that gives more weight to parties than to personalities.

… and demoscopy

Demoscopy attempts to explain election results. Voters are surveyed extensively on election day.¹ The questions are sometimes manipulative. Nevertheless, the results are interesting. They reflect voters’ perceptions without examining the causes of these perceptions.
  Some things are easy to understand. For example, that 82 per cent of respondents are dissatisfied with the outgoing federal government – a level of dissatisfaction never before seen in the history of the Federal Republic. Or: that things are rather unfair in Germany. This is the opinion of 54 per cent in the West and even 67 per cent in the East of the country. Or the concern that “we will not have a stable government after the Bundestag elections” (top of the list of concerns with 68 per cent) and that “democracy and the rule of law are in danger” (in second place with 65 per cent). Or that “you will be marginalised on certain issues if you speak your mind” (53 per cent). Or that “prices are rising so much that I can’t pay my bills” (also 53 per cent).

The influence of the media …

The survey results show that the worries are not the same for everyone, but vary greatly depending on the voting decision. This also applies to “worries” that – realistically speaking – are unfounded and are more likely to be due to the mood created in the country by the political power elites and the media. For example, that “we are defencelessly at the mercy of Trump and Putin” (65 per cent in total, with strong fluctuations depending on the election decision). Or that “Russia’s influence on Europe continues to grow” (64 per cent overall, again with strong fluctuations depending on the election decision).
  However, Russophobia, as has been shown once again, is not as pronounced in eastern Germany as in western Germany. The following survey result fits in with this: while only 28 per cent in West Germany think it is good “that the BSW is a party that wants to achieve a good relationship with Russia”, the figure in East Germany is 45 per cent. But even in the East, there is no majority in favour of good relations with Russia. If you add to this the fact that 47 per cent of respondents across Germany – by a wide margin compared to all other candidates – would consider the SPD politician  to be a good Federal Chancellor, then you wonder how this can be explained, because Pistorius wants to massively arm Germany, make the Germans and Germany fit for war and has struck a harsh tone against Russia since taking office as Federal Minister.
  In my opinion, such survey results show the fatal consequences of a daily and synchronised elite and media campaign against another country and its political leadership.

… Propaganda and irritations

This leads to my most important question: Where do we stand in Germany today (as elsewhere in our Western countries) when the question of the rationality of today’s voting decisions is raised? Can we still assume the responsible citizen who – well informed and sufficiently educated – makes the best electoral decision for himself, but also for the common good?
  This does not mean that only one party is electable. In politics, there is usually not just one “right” decision. There are always equally valid alternatives. But there are also political decisions that are obviously not only against the common good, but also against one’s own interests. Even Ernst Fraenkel and his theory of pluralism formulated after 1945, which struggled with the classic concept of the common good and assumed the necessity of different, opposing parties and interest groups based on different interests – and had a decisive influence on political science thinking in the German post-war decades – assumed that the diversity of possible political decisions must be within a framework based on natural law. A frenetic Yes from a “majority” to the question “Do you want total war?”, for example, cannot simply be accepted. This can only be explained by massive propaganda and total mental and spiritual irritation.

How democracy is being undermined

The right to vote is a fundamental political right. Citizens have fought hard for it, even in Germany. What a movement went through the German Federation of the time, when in 1948 adult men could elect a parliament, the National Assembly in  St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, for the first time in German history!
  But we also know from the USA and other countries how, since World War I, influential people such as Edward Bernays and Walter Lippmann have not only been thinking about this but have also been advising and influencing the power elites on how to cheat democracy. By misusing psychological insights and manipulating the “masses”, elite rule was to be secured – even though they are formally still democracies.
  If, as is the case with Russia for example, there is virtually only one elite and media opinion, then it is to be expected that the majority of citizens will accept this opinion without scrutiny – especially if it is orientated towards “those at the top”.

Social media’s deleterious effects

And as far as the voting decisions of young voters are concerned: The majority of young voters rely for their news, information, and communications almost entirely on social media. Thoroughness, careful consideration, and depth of argument come up short. Representatives of the Die Linke, the Left Party, proudly declared on election night that their party’s quite successful re-entry into the Bundestag, which had been considered impossible just a few weeks previously, was due primarily to the very successful use of social media. Peace has no constituency in the new Bundestag.
  I would have liked Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht to enter the Bundestag. It includes an above-average number of personalities with genuine peace concerns. Just a few weeks ago, this new party was polling at almost 10 per cent of the vote. The BSW and the personalities who have appeared in public in favour of the alliance have not changed in these few weeks. But in media headlines about the BSW, one negative headline followed another.
  This was not the only reason for the BSW’s poor performance. But here, too, the impression remains that media have improperly influenced voter behaviour – especially in western Germany. Here, too, our fellow citizens in eastern Germany were more vigilant in guarding against attempts to manipulate voters’ sentiments.
  This and much more suggests that Germany will not simply change for the better through more new parties and more elections. It needs more: Wouldn’t it make sense to raise the country’s political culture to a different level? A political culture that is orientated toward what makes democracy possible in the first place, starting with the family as the ‘nucleus of society’, through the upbringing and education of our children and young people and more human interaction, to the revival of political ethics oriented toward the social nature and dignity of human beings.

Image of man and political culture

In talks held in 2005 between the Japanese scholar Daisaku Ikeda and the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, which have been published in book form, there is much worth thinking about. I append two quotations from this book to conclude these reflections:
  From Gorbachev:

[U]nder no circumstances can we allow suspension of our illusions to undermine faith in the reason and conscience of the people from whom we derive our substance. A politician without faith in the creative powers of his people is dead. He himself becomes incapable of all creativity and of achieving anything great. (p. 32.)

And, referring to Tolstoy, this from Ikeda:

Lev Tolstoy believed that equality permeates all human culture and that there can be no morality, no religion, and no creativity without it. I am profoundly convinced that, in addition to being pragmatically constructive, the sense of organic equality with one’s own kind is important to good spiritual health. Nothing is more destructive than the tendency to preach, reprimand, and pontificate. Respect for your partner as an equal evokes the best aspects of his spirit and awakens him to candor and creative impulses. (pp. 31–32.)  •

¹ https://www.tagesschau.de/wahl/archiv/2025-02-23-BT-DE/index-content.shtml
² Gorbachev, Mikhail; Ikeda, Daisaku. Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century: Gorbachev and Ikeda on Buddhism and Communism. I.B. Tauris/ Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 978–3–451–33279–1