{"id":44290,"date":"2025-02-23T22:25:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T03:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/big-challenges-loom-for-germanys-merz-in-divided-country\/23\/02\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-02-23T22:25:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T03:25:44","slug":"big-challenges-loom-for-germanys-merz-in-divided-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/big-challenges-loom-for-germanys-merz-in-divided-country\/23\/02\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Big challenges loom for Germany’s Merz in divided country"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Germany is at a crossroads and now for Friedrich Merz the hard work begins.<\/p>\n

The point of this election was never just about a nation’s struggle to rediscover its economic mojo or re-evaluate its asylum policy \u2013 important as those issues absolutely are.<\/p>\n

It’s also about Germany’s ability to become the confident, world power that many of its allies want it to be.<\/p>\n

While there are capitals in Europe looking to Berlin for global leadership, within Germany, the priorities are often different.<\/p>\n

Merz will now need to balance those demands along with the inevitable compromises that come with coalition building.<\/p>\n

His promise to represent everyone comes amidst clear and stark divides in Germany.<\/p>\n

This election has again highlighted an east-west split, decades on from reunification.<\/p>\n

Voting data so far suggests that the AfD is solidifying its dominance in the former communist east while the CDU continues to prevail in much of Germany’s south and west.<\/p>\n

An ARD exit poll shows 18 to 24-year-olds were most likely to back the left Die Linke party \u2013 followed by the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland.<\/p>\n

An irony of this campaign has been that \u2013 of the four main parties \u2013 the one most guaranteed to not get power sucked up so much attention.<\/p>\n

AfD’s rise is a central story of this election \u2013 and contemporary German politics.<\/p>\n

This is a party blocked from government because of a policy of non-cooperation with the far-right, known as the “firewall”.<\/p>\n

Sections of the AfD have been classified as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence.<\/p>\n

One of its most prominent figures, Bjorn Hocke, has been fined for using a banned Nazi-era slogan \u2013 Alles fur Deutschland.<\/a><\/p>\n

Eyebrows have been raised as some AfD supporters have reportedly since morphed the phrase into, “Alice fur Deutschland” \u2013 in reference to leader, Alice Weidel.<\/p>\n

Those people may suggest it’s a finger up to an establishment that they think finds spurious excuses to smear them.<\/p>\n

Others worry that it’s a sign of something far more sinister.<\/p>\n

The AfD has become ever-bolder, some might even argue reckless, in its rhetoric.<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, we heard one AfD councillor \u2013 in a row with two men of colour \u2013 say<\/a>: “Go back to your Heimat (homeland) if you don’t like this here.”<\/p>\n

He did so, as we were openly filming him \u2013 then flatly denied it was racist.<\/p>\n

Yet a stream of controversies hasn’t stopped the AfD from enjoying its best ever result.<\/p>\n

In second place, it hasn’t outperformed expectations but this still marks the strongest showing for a far-right party in post-war Germany.<\/p>\n

Already social media savvy, it has a powerful ally in tech billionaire Elon Musk who’s openly endorsed the party.<\/p>\n

Many talk of 2025 as an inflection point for Germany.<\/p>\n

Either this is the high watermark for the far-right \u2013 or the moment that will be remembered as the key stepping stone on its path to power.<\/p>\n

Much depends, say opponents of the AfD, on Germany’s centrist politicians getting their act together and tackling voters’ concerns.<\/p>\n

If they don’t, the AfD will be a prime position to launch political attacks on the government as Germany’s main opposition party.<\/p>\n

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