Fragmented party system
Forsa boss fears “Weimar conditions”
January 23, 2024, 10:43 a.m
The Sahra Wagenknecht alliance and the planned Union of Values party threaten to create unstable political conditions similar to those at the end of the Weimar Republic, predicts pollster Manfred Güllner. The winners could be the AfD and its Thuringian leader Björn Höcke.
The head of the Forsa Institute, Manfred Güllner, has warned of conditions like those in the Weimar Republic with regard to the current new party formations. Parties like the Union of Values or the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) “threaten a fragmentation of the party system and the danger of renewed Weimar conditions in Germany,” he told the Germany editorial network. Güllner focuses on the unstable political conditions at the end of the Weimar Republic, which favored the rise of the National Socialists.
“If, for example, more and more people in Thuringia vote for splinter parties but they do not get into parliament, fewer and fewer percentages are required to be able to appoint the prime minister,” said the pollster. That could “play into the hands” of the AfD and its Thuringian leader Björn Höcke.
With regard to the right-wing conservative Union of Values’ decision to found a party, Güllner said: “I don’t see much voter potential for a party of the Union of Values.” It is doubtful whether it will reach the five percent hurdle, added the Forsa boss, referring to Hans-Georg Maaßen, who “couldn’t even win his direct mandate” in the 2021 federal election.
The Union of Values decided to convert it into a party at the weekend. Her goal was to run in the East German state elections in September. The Wagenknecht party BSW, which was founded at the beginning of January, wants to take part in the European elections in June.