The biggest news story to come out of Germany on Sunday was the unexpected triumph of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU party in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, with 4.05 million residents, the sixth-largest of Germany's 16 states.
For the first time in 35 years, the Social Democratic Party, or SPD, lost control of the western state's Landtag, or parliament, and Gordon Schnieder, state CDU chairman and a close ally of Merz, will almost certainly become state premier.
But the more significant underlying story to come out of Rhineland-Palatinate was the showing of the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party. In placing third, the AfD more than doubled its showing from 8.3% in the last state elections in 2021 to 19.5% on Sunday, its best showing yet in a western German state.
Even more significant, however, is that the party placed first among voters ages 18 to 24. According to exit polls conducted in Rhineland-Palatinate, 21% of that group chose the AfD, compared with 19% who backed the SPD and 15% for the CDU.
These figures were the opposite of those surveyed in the same poll who were 60 and older: 39% for the CDU, 32% for the SPD and 15% for the AfD.
If younger German voters continue in the same pattern toward the right in other state elections and in the next general election scheduled for 2029, it could spell trouble for the ruling CDU. Both Merz and CDU state leaders have steadfastly ruled out any coalition with the AfD, citing what they consider xenophobic and even neo-Nazi leanings of some members of the 13-year-old party.
But it is questionable whether the present coalition of the CDU and SPD and the smaller Green Party can survive at the national level for long. The SPD, Europe's oldest socialist party, not only drew 10% less in Rhineland-Palatinate than in the last state elections but nearly failed to reach the 5% required for representation in a Landtag in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg last month.
The SPD also lost the mayoralty of Munich, the capital of Bavaria, on Sunday to a Green candidate.
"The SPD defeats in recent years reveal a larger problem," Martin Klingst, longtime political correspondent for the German weekly Die Zeit, told Newsmax. "It has forgotten how to make policies that address the needs of the average worker and employee. It is too focused on people who are unemployed and dependent on government welfare payments. In short, the party has lost its way."
Klingst agreed that "the beneficiary of the SPD's losses is the far-right AfD, just as it has been the beneficiary of the CDU losses in the past. The AfD is currently the party that is winning many working-class votes above all. There are various reasons for this. The AfD has become a magnet for the discontented."
But Klingst quickly added his opinion that "the AfD offers no real solutions to Germany's economic woes. For example, it promises pensioners a pension of over 70% of their average last income. The current pension stands at 48% and is no longer affordable as it stands.
"The AfD wants to stop all immigration, even though the German economy is suffering from a severe shortage of skilled workers and all leading experts and virtually all companies are calling for the targeted recruitment of foreign skilled workers."
As for the swing to the right of young voters, Klingst agreed that "a particularly large number of young people in Rhineland-Palatinate voted for the AfD. But it is also true that this was the case in Rhineland-Palatinate, but does not yet apply to the entire Federal Republic.
"Young people still vote in smaller numbers than other age groups. Nevertheless, the high level of support reflects dwindling trust in the established parties."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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