As expected, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party secured second place in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, winning an estimated 20 percent of the vote. The Social Democrats suffered defeat, garnering just 16 percent, while the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) emerged as the winners with 26 percent. Friedrich Merz, the likely chancellor candidate, has pledged to form a coalition—but firmly ruled out any alliance with the AfD.
For decades, power in Germany has alternated between the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. The fact that the far-right has now positioned itself “between” them is no accident—it reflects broader social trends in the West. Trump’s victory in the U.S. was once dismissed as an anomaly, but that perspective is increasingly hard to sustain.
Now, imagine someone who believes migrants should be welcomed and treated with compassion—but also insists that a German is a German, a man is a man, a woman is a woman, and who, on top of all that, attends mass every Sunday. Does this automatically make them a fascist, racist, sexist, homophobe, or backward “clergy-feudalist”? I don’t think so. In fact, I suspect that many in the U.S. and Western Europe are growing weary of the relentless attacks on their cultural identity. (Here, in Armenia, we have not yet tired of the dubious pleasure of being “nothing.”)
What I find particularly unacceptable is aggressive intolerance masquerading as “tolerance” and anti-democracy parading as “democracy.” The essence of this phenomenon can be summed up by a simple threat: Don’t you dare think or speak like that, or we’ll brand you a racist or sexist. This modern “democratic” tool of silencing dissent is exactly what U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance referred to in his now-famous Munich speech.
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Of course, the danger of real xenophobia should not be ignored—that concern likely explains why Germany’s Christian Democrats, despite holding a relative majority, refuse to align with the AfD.
The political pendulum will always swing between “left” and “right.” The real challenge is ensuring it doesn’t swing so violently that people in the middle get crushed.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
