There is repeated talk of a firewall when parties emphasize their rejection of cooperation with the AfD. Researchers have now investigated how solid the wall stands in the eastern municipalities.
According to a study, the much-cited firewall between the established parties and the AfD has cracked in the municipalities, but is largely still standing. This is the conclusion reached by the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) in its study of voting behavior in local parliaments in eastern German states. The term firewall refers to the rejection by established parties of any cooperation with the AfD.
The study was made public on Saturday. “Overall, the firewall is far more stable than is often assumed,” said the study’s co-author, Wolfgang Schroeder, to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “The AfD’s normalization tactics are not working.”
Schroeder and his colleagues Daniel Ziblatt and Florian Borchert examined 2,452 sessions of parliaments in rural districts and independent cities from mid-2019 to mid-2024 in all eastern German federal states. The AfD submitted 2,348 applications there. According to this, it received no support in around 80 percent of cases. In around 20 percent (484 cases) it was proven that there was cooperation with the AfD in terms of content. In around 10 percent (244 cases) there was cooperation in which at least five non-AfD MPs agreed with the AfD.
“Local politics is characterized by the search for consensus. 20 percent approval is not a lot,” explained Schroeder. Support for AfD projects has not increased over the years. The numbers have even decreased slightly.
Considerable regional differences – Thuringia at the bottom
According to the study, it also makes a big difference whether the AfD submitted its proposal on transport issues (quite high approval from the others) or on asylum, migration or security (low approval). “The local politicians in the district councils and independent cities are apparently able to distinguish well where they will exceptionally vote with the AfD and where they will not,” said Schroeder.
The researchers found significant regional differences. The greatest cooperation does not necessarily occur in regions with the strongest AfD presence. According to the study, the highest cooperation rate was recorded in Saxony-Anhalt, where 27.0 percent of AfD applications received support from other parties. The second highest rate was measured in Saxony at 22.4 percent. This was followed by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 19.4 percent, Brandenburg with 18.3 percent and Thuringia with 16.0 percent. The researchers also found a higher approval rate for AfD applications in rural regions than in cities.
In individual cases, those cooperating also included representatives from splinter parties such as the right-wing extremist Die Heimat (ex-NPD). In most cases, however, it was not possible to determine which party was cooperating with the AfD, as voting results at district level are not recorded by faction.
Source: Stern
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