West Germans really want to blame the lack of denazification in the DDR for the rise of the AfD in the East despite the fact that the DDR did way more comprehensive denazification than the West. They do this because it’s easier than looking at how wealth disparity is fertile ground for fascism.
while there's a significant disparity between east and west Germany, I don't think that really accounts for the rise of fascism. I've seen pretty compelling numbers suggesting it's the Thuringian wealthy farmers driving this. also it doesn't explain Flanders being the more fascist part of Belgium
I see Germans continue thinking "sign this paper where you say you are very very sorry for the holocaust and are now a firm believer in christian democracy and you can go back to running your factory/ being city mayor in Bavaria/ rejoin the army" counts as "denazification"
Not to mention how west German capitalists picked over the corpse of the DDR and de industrialised it
Also ignoring that West Germans who vacation in Sylt and wear Apple Watches are funding most of it too
No expert but from outsider view centrism not really sending its best , as spd and Christian democrats saying fascists bad then dealing with economic issues afaik
x.com/Julius_Ktxt/... "Although it is frequently discussed, AfD support appears only weakly correlated with objective economic conditions. The unemployment rate or the disposable income per capita of a municipality correlate only weakly with the AfD's vote share and its gains compared to 2019."
Interesting longer historical perspective on why Germans in the east vote differently from those in the west: www.theguardian.com/world/articl...
The deep historical, political and cultural split between east and west acts as a brake on the rise of the AfD nationwide
The fact that a defeated and broken up Germany instantly became the front line in the Cold War probably made for a less than ideal place for a true denazification probably played a pretty huge deal. Also treating the east like a colony and the west *not*, probably speaks the the economic divide.
Has there ever been a fascist leader of the ppl type? Like a grassroots fascist? All I’m coming up with are rich fucks who had too much control in the first place. I could be wrong though.