BERLIN, 9 July (DPA/EP) –
The President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, expressed his concern this Sunday about the high rates of intention to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and warned of the possibility of a “rebound effect” of the protest vote that he is promoting. to the formation.
“Each voter takes responsibility for what he does,” Steinmeier explained in the traditional summer interview on public broadcaster ZDF. This also applies, she noted, if one “empowers a party that contributes to dumbing down the debate.”
“We must not continue promoting the business of spreading fear in this society,” Steinmeier warned, before adding that “what we need is not a boom in fearmongers, but a boom in problem solvers.”
The AfD currently has 20 percent of voting intentions nationwide, ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). The far-right party is the strongest in voting intentions in the regions of Brandenburg, Thüringen and Saxony, all three in eastern Germany, where regional elections are scheduled in just over a year.
“Yes, the polls are worrying,” Steinmeier said. “But they should not lead us to automatically classify every critical issue as populism and far right.”
According to the German president, if a large part of the electorate turns away from the ruling parties without reinforcing the largest opposition party, this raises questions.
“Of course, the government parties also have to ask themselves, and they do, if they deal with the right issues, if they leave issues out, if they choose the right communication, if they show the unity that voters expect or if there are too many disputes,” he said. added.
