A French newspaper believes that the topics of German political debate during the last election campaign were completely different from what is being focused on in discussions before the presidential election campaign in France, especially what is related to Islam.
In Germany, according to a report in the French newspaper Le Parisien, immigration and its related issues were little present in the election campaign, and instead social or economic issues such as climate or debt were at the center of every discussion.
It may seem astonishing to the French, reports Henri Verne, the newspaper's correspondent, but the word "Islam" was not used not once in the big TV debates of the recent German legislative election campaign.
The term "immigration" was rarely used, if it was touched upon, in most cases by representatives of the far-right Alternative Alternative party.
In short, says the reporter, these topics that represent the obsession of the French presidential campaign were almost absent in Germany, unlike topics such as climate change, social justice, rising inequality, infrastructure modernization and digital transformation.
However, the writer says, immigration played a pivotal role in the previous German elections in 2017, which took place two years after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Afghan refugees to enter Germany, and the populist “PEGIDA” movement later organized demonstrations Anti-Islam in several German cities.
The writer concludes his article by quoting Olaf, a 52-year-old German citizen, a government employee in Berlin, "Today, things have settled down and many refugees have found work, and they will help pay our pensions in the future."