Mainstream politicians express alarm while lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt welcomes congratulations from Elon Musk

Mainstream politicians express alarm while lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt welcomes congratulations from Elon Musk

Mainstream politicians around Europe have expressed alarm after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) swept to a historic state election victory in Germany, while nationalist figures cheered the result as a mandate for change.

While falling just short of an absolute majority, the AfD surged into first place in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on Sunday, exit polls ⁠showed, putting the far right within reach ​of power at ‌the state level for ‌the first time since the second world war.

  • lemdeggity@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    There may be a gap here in the definition of “liberal”. Liberalism is a political philosophy that also encompasses most traditional conservatives. It is different from the colloquial usage. It’s loosely defined as the belief in individual freedoms, including the right to private property. It is inherently capitalist and therefore socialists, communists and anarchists generally do not consider them to be of the left.

    • LittleBorat3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      If you split yourself off the “left in the widest sense” you have 5 percent of the votes and you are essentially meaningless. Stuck to your values but meaningless.

      The left does not need more splitting while the right manages to rally behind one or two people.

      • Miaou@jlai.luEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        Unless your election system is FPTP, I don’t see a problem with doing just 5%.

      • lemdeggity@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        As I say, liberals believe in capitalism by definition. The impact of your vote once every few years in an election under this system pales in comparison to the influence that the owner class have due to their wealth and power. This is fundamental. This is why you get all the anti-liberal sentiment from anti-capitalists.

        Furthermore you talk about convincing some percentage of voters in order to change the system. The early turnout figure for this election is 54% and that’s considered high… What of the non voters?

      • lemdeggity@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        9 days ago

        Often conflated but Marx and Engels themselves draw a distinction between socialism and communism. They consider socialism a stepping stone to communism.

        • UnequalExchange@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          9 days ago

          …umm ya. Socialism was created by Marx because he knew that humans, as stupid , genocidal , and self destructive as we are, would have difficulty embracing as good of an idea as comkunism so he proposed that socialism is a ‘transitory thing’ or transitory phase that leads to a communistic sociaety because as we have seen a trillion times whenone society embraces socialism anither capitalistic society will genocide the people there or even force the people embracing socialism to change their minf

          We saw this in Korea at the hands of the canadians and americans, We saw this in Indonesia at the hands of the amedicans again. We saw this in Vietnam at thr hands of the french , then the japanese , then the americans. We saw this with the Congolese a tthe hands of the belgians and americans . And even in CHile at the hands of the americans

          We have seen this exact scenario play out snd we will continue time and time again to see this scenario play out…

          • lemdeggity@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            9 days ago

            Socialist ideas predate Marx. Look up Robert Owen for example. Engels talks about earlier socialist philosophies in “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific”. It’s not a very long book and it’s an interesting read. I think it’s an extract from a longer work.