Unity report published
Eastern representative explains AfD survey results with “defiance”
September 27, 2023, 5:44 p.m
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Since October 3, 1990, East and West Germany have been reunited. What has happened since then? The report on German unity cites the harmonization of pension values as progress. According to Eastern Representative Schneider, reducing East Germany to the AfD alone does not do justice to the issue.
Even 33 years after reunification, traces of division remain visible. This is a core message of this year’s report “On the State of German Unity”, which the Federal Government’s Eastern Representative Carsten Schneider presented in Berlin. Although many structural differences between East and West Germany have been reduced, “many East and West Germans continue to assess the situation in the country differently,” it says.
“Further strengthening unity is the task of all democrats in Germany in the coming years,” emphasized Schneider in the introduction to the report, which was discussed in the Federal Cabinet this morning. The establishment of Germany’s internal unity is “a continuous process of mutual understanding” and therefore remains “a permanent task.”
The report cites the equalization of pension values in East and West as progress in bringing living conditions closer together. Also mentioned is the replacement of many special programs through their integration into a “all-German funding system based on objective indicators”. Where there are structural differences, these are now often within eastern or western German regions, for example between large cities and their suburbs on the one hand and rural regions on the other. The associated influences often overshadowed “the different past experiences in East and West”.
Reduction of East Germany to the AfD
However, it is also a fact that “a higher proportion of people in rural regions in East Germany live in an environment that is characterized by a stagnating or shrinking population, by different family structures and by a lower level of facilities and services of general interest,” notes the Report to. Many challenges across Germany, also in connection with digitalization or accessible health care, therefore appeared “in parts of East Germany as if in a magnifying glass.” The report critically notes that the proportion of East German managers is increasing, but remains well below the East German population share of around 20 percent.
With regard to the AfD’s high poll numbers in East Germany, Schneider said that many citizens were adopting a “defiant attitude” that he could “partly understand.” But even in its home state of Thuringia, the AfD is “far from being a mass organization.”
Reducing East Germany to the AfD alone would not do justice to the issue, emphasized Schneider when presenting the report. He even has the impression that this actually helps the AfD. State elections will take place next year in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. According to recent polls, the AfD could emerge as the strongest party in all three elections.
“Report on German unity is a missed opportunity”
The report also points to a significantly higher prevalence of anti-immigrant attitudes in the East, according to surveys, as well as higher numbers of cases of right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence there. However, the proportion of people with a migration history in East Germany was in the single digits in all federal states (except Berlin) in 2022 and thus well below the national average of a good 24 percent. Criticism of the report came from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
“The report on German unity is a missed opportunity to highlight the positive developments in East Germany,” explained Union parliamentary group vice-president Sepp Müller. “On the other hand, the report also lacks any impulses for the regions that are undergoing structural change or initiatives for better medical care in rural areas. The income and wealth gap between East and West is completely unmentioned.” The left-wing politician Sören Pellmann called the federal government’s record on East Germany “devastating”. He called on Schneider to “finally present concrete plans” to achieve equalization in economic power and wages.