Majority of Germans oppose ‘firewall’ against cooperating with AfD in parliament, poll finds
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
Fifty-nine percent. That's not a fringe number, that's a country telling its own political class something it doesn't want to hear. For years German lawmakers have treated the "firewall" against AfD as settled law of nature, something above debate, and now a solid majority of eligible voters is saying the quiet part out loud: maybe pretending the second-largest party in the Bundestag doesn't exist isn't actually working out.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Results from a recent poll of German voters showed that a significant majority opposes the long-standing “firewall” policy that prohibits major German political parties from working with the right-wing Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.
German polling firm Infratest dipmap, in a survey conducted between Aug. 3-5, found that 59% of eligible voters in the […]
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Fifty-nine percent. That's not a fringe number, that's a country telling its own political class something it doesn't want to hear. For years German lawmakers have treated the "firewall" against AfD as settled law of nature, something above debate, and now a solid majority of eligible voters is saying the quiet part out loud: maybe pretending the second-largest party in the Bundestag doesn't exist isn't actually working out.
This is the part American commentators keep missing when they wave off AfD as simply unspeakable. You can think the party is wrong on plenty and still notice that walling off millions of voters' preferences from governance tends to produce exactly the resentment it claims to prevent. Germany didn't get here because voters suddenly became extremists. It got here because a cartel of establishment parties decided some votes count less than others, and people noticed.
None of this means AfD is right, or that cooperation should happen carelessly. But a "firewall" that a majority of the electorate now rejects isn't protecting democracy, it's insulting it. If mainstream German parties want to actually shrink AfD's support, they might try engaging with the voters instead of moralizing at them. Telling six in ten people their political instincts are illegitimate has never once made them go away. It just makes them louder.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.