BERLIN - Uncertainty and frustration in Germany over the policies of Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government have turned to despair, benefiting parties on both the right and left of the spectrum. This is how Die Welt assesses the debacle of the government parties in the European elections, in which, on the contrary, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a splinter group of the post-Communist Left, were successful. The success of the opposition conservative CDU/CSU union, which was forecast to win a clear victory, is overshadowed by the populists, according to Die Welt. The Focus magazine described the failure of the coalition parties, which finished behind the AfD, as a slap in the face of the government, and the Bild tabloid suggested early elections.
"Is there anything surprising about the outcome of the Euro elections in Germany, which were not about Europe?" Die Welt asked about the vote, which was dominated by intra-German issues. In response, the newspaper said it was the clarity of some of the results, with voters visibly telling Scholz's government that this cannot go on any longer.
According to Die Welt, the AfD has not been harmed by the election scandals and the fact that many of the party's leaders espouse radical and often unconstitutional positions. The gain of Wagenknecht, whose party the paper described as a populist mishmash, also shows that voters are fleeing to the extremes of the political spectrum. "To parties whose positions are hardly compatible with a stable democratic mentality," Die Welt wrote. It noted that these parties are counting on uncertainty and frustration with government policies that have grown into despair.
The Focus magazine is also critical in its comments, calling the Social Democrats' (SPD) third place a defeat for the Chancellor. "Few things show the defeat of the Chancellor's party as clearly as the fact that Germany's oldest party managed to convince fewer people in the Federal Republic than the far right. The AfD ahead of the SPD, and despite all the scandals the right-wing radicals and their leading duo have been involved in, this is actually a reason for the SPD to fall into disgrace," Focus said. He thus mentioned the affairs of AfD candidate leader Maximilian Krah and number two Peter Bystron. According to Focus, the question now is how much longer Scholz can count on the support of his party.
CTK/gnews.cz-JaV_07
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