“Every voter takes responsibility for what they do,” said Steinmeier in the ZDF summer interview. This also applies if you “strengthen a party that contributes to the brutalization of the dispute”.
Don’t need “fearmonger boom”
“We must not continue to promote the business of fearmongers in this society,” warned Steinmeier. “What we need is not an economy of fear-mongers, but an economy of problem-solvers. And it’s not as if we don’t have any of them.”
The AfD is currently in the nationwide polls at around 20 percent – and thus ahead of the chancellor party SPD. In Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony, where new state parliaments will be elected in just over a year, the AfD is currently the strongest party in the current polls.
“Yes, the polls are worrying,” said Steinmeier. “But they must not lead us to automatically classify every critical issue as populism and right-wing extremism.” If large parts of the electorate turn away from the ruling parties and the largest opposition party does not win, this raises questions.
An appeal to the governing parties
“Of course governing parties also have to ask themselves, and they do, whether they have the right issues, whether issues are being left out, whether they are choosing the right communication, whether they are showing the unity that voters expect, or whether there’s too much fighting.”
haz/rb (dpa, afp)
Source: DW
