Wokism doesn't put food on the table (Luis Ventoso in El Debate)

Discontent in Germany, reflected in the AfD's possible rise, stems from dissatisfaction with conventional politics and the perception that social and cultural priorities fail to solve economic problems.

Politics sometimes resembles a chess game where the pieces move on their own, while the players seem unable to grasp the board. In **Germany**, that board is showing worrying cracks. The country, long the economic engine of Europe, is now facing flat growth. Its car industry, a historic pillar, is being overtaken by Asian competitors, partly due to **Brussels** directives that, with well-intentioned ecological goals, have ended up favouring **China**. **Volkswagen** recently announced **50,000 job cuts**.

## The weight of inertia and digitalisation

Once a byword for innovation, **Germany** seemed to settle into a comfort zone built on its industrial past. It has become a hyper-unionised country, with shorter working hours and high wages, which has eroded its competitiveness. It has also fallen behind in cutting-edge technology, the digital world and artificial intelligence. Immigration, far from being a mere demographic factor, has generated social tensions and, at times, alarming episodes of violence, such as the tragic incident in **Magdeburg** in December **2024**, when an asylum seeker drove into a crowd at a Christmas market.

## A cry from Saxony-Anhalt

It is in **Saxony-Anhalt**, a region shaped by heavy industry and the post-communist transition, that these concerns surface most starkly. After the fall of the **Berlin** Wall, the region suffered steep deindustrialisation, with unemployment peaking at **20%** at the start of the century, prompting young people to leave for more prosperous areas. Today, it is the most aged federal state in **Germany**, with an average age close to **50**, and its economy shows signs of weakness, with GDP contracting by **-0.2%** last year, against meagre national growth of **0.2%**.

Against this backdrop, the upcoming elections in **Saxony-Anhalt** point to a political upheaval. Polls predict a sweeping victory for the **AfD**, with **42%** of the vote, far ahead of the **CDU** (the current governing party) and the socialists, who are in a precarious position across **Europe**. If confirmed, this result will amount to a revolution, with a party branded "extreme" by Germany's political, cultural and media establishment taking power. People, tired of watching their lives deteriorate and finding no answers in traditional politics, are looking for alternatives.

## Proposals and discontent

The **AfD** puts forward a discourse that, while it can be inflammatory and contain controversial elements, speaks to the concrete demands of part of the population. Its proposals include controlling irregular immigration, deporting incivil migrants and shutting down asylum. It also calls for higher welfare benefits and lower taxes, a difficult balance to strike. It wants to abolish public television and radio, arguing that people should not have to fund a service it sees as indoctrinating rather than neutral. It also seeks to reverse gender policies and restore patriotism and freedom of expression, which it says are threatened by the censorship of political correctness and so-called "wokism".

In essence, these proposals, labelled "extreme", resonate with part of the citizenry, regardless of their previous ideology, when mainstream parties fail to address their problems. It is clear that the left's social engineering, often labelled "wokism", may teach certain ideas, but it does not fill stomachs or solve economic worries.

Parties driven by emotion, rather than by reason and data, do not convince everyone. The idea that the future has moved to **Asia** while **Europe** becomes more passive and less innovative is a lingering concern. The anger of middle classes who see their purchasing power eroded, their industry threatened and their cities transformed is understandable. Neighbourhoods that have gone from majority Christian to Muslim within a single generation pose undeniable integration challenges.

It is essential to respect the freedom of choice of those German voters seeking change, rather than automatically dismissing them. It is striking that such outrage is directed at radical right-wing parties in **Western Europe**, while parties inheriting ideologies with a far more destructive track record have historically been tolerated.