The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is neck and neck with the Social Democrats in the polls, for the legislative elections in Bavaria this Sunday, October 14th. She is preparing to enter the regional parliament, driven by the dramatic fall of conservatives of the CSU.
A few days before the elections, the campaign is in full swing in Nuremberg, with 530,000 inhabitants. On paper, everything is going well in the second largest city of Bavaria, a wealthy German region: the unemployment rate was 2.8% in September and purchasing power should increase by 2.8% in 2018. The Mercer ranking on the quality of life quotes Nuremberg as a city where life is good ...
In a small restaurant, planted in the middle of workers' gardens, about thirty activists of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) listen to another "reality" , repeated by Guido Reil. This sulphurous former miner of the Ruhr left the Social Democratic Party, too welcoming with refugees, when Chancellor Merkel opened the doors, in 2015. It lists acts of aggression all committed, supposedly, by foreigners , ... a "spiral of violence" would seize Germany. The figures of the Ministry of the Interior show no increase.
But there is the famous New Year of Cologne in 2016. Sexual assault reported late by the media. Corinna Schenz, a Nuremberg candidate, responded by joining the AfD. "Merkel betrayed her own citizens. She opened the borders, without asking our opinion, traces the candidate who has only one obsession: Close the borders. We do not know the status or age of those who enter. Many come to benefit from our social system .
The extreme right seduces
Around the tables of the political meeting, a few young people and a lot of retired people. So far, Kurt, 68, has always voted CSU, the Bavarian branch of Angela Merkel's party: "Always right, like my parents. The AfD attracted him from its inception in 2013. "I was convinced by Bernd Lucke, the former party leader, and his criticism of Merkel's economic policy regarding the euro. "
Kurt judges his retirement "insufficient" ; he improves the ordinary with a small company based in the United States that he still runs. "I lived for many years abroad. I am married to a Filipina, I am absolutely not xenophobic. The political scene and the media should stop demonizing the party, they are not neo-Nazis, " he said.
In Nuremberg, however, many organizations have created an Alliance against the Far Right, chaired by Stephan Doll. In this city where Hitler promulgated his antisemitic laws in 1935, this unionist wants a bulwark. "The AfD enters parliaments with a racist far-right ideology ," he explains. It must be denounced as such so that those who might be inclined to vote for them, know who they are giving their voice to ... "