“Bad mood party”: Scholz sees crises responsible for the AfD upswing

“Bad Mood Party”
Scholz sees crises responsible for the AfD upswing

Many politicians are currently wondering why the AfD is doing so well in the polls. Chancellor Scholz sees the uncertainty in the current crisis as the main reason. He wants to counter that with belief in the country, in Europe.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz sees the uncertainty in times of crisis as the reason for the AfD’s soaring polls. In view of the success of right-wing populist parties in other European countries, the question “Why are there such bad mood parties?” he said in the evening at the “Lange Nacht der Zeit” event in Hamburg.

“We live in a time of upheaval in which many citizens in our countries are not so sure whether the future is on their side and whether they have one.” That creates uncertainty “and resonance for parties that praise the past in a bad mood”.

In order to confront the populists, “we must ensure that Europe, that our countries, have a future that people can believe in”. Last but not least, it is about the question of “what holds a society together. The issue of respect,” said the Chancellor. “If we don’t manage to feel equal” for different career and life paths in a society that has become more open, “then we will have a lot of resonance space for the Trumpists, the Brexiteers or even for the AfD”.

The AfD had recently reached 17 percent in the current Forsa survey for RTL and ntv. It was three percentage points ahead of the Greens and just one behind the SPD. In the ARD “Deutschlandtrend” it was 18 percent, in an INSA survey for “Bild am Sonntag” it was even 19 percent.

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