Alternative for Germany, on the path to power
The political development in Germany becomes easy to predict for someone who have studied the Nordic countries and how the political parties there have dealt with the return of libertarianism, nationalism and conservatism.
Columnist Marcus Barre
2015-02-23
It was in the wake of the 1968 student revolts in Western Europe that the Social Democratic parties in the Nordic countries were radicalized. However, the new, radical socialism lacked grounding with a large part of the working-class voters. As so often in history, a force also creates a counter force. And so it was this time too.
In the early 1970s, new, right-wing parties were created in Norway and Denmark by individuals who thought the traditional right-wing parties yielded too easily to the new radical socialism practiced in government by the Social Democratic parties.
In Denmark, the lawyer Mogens Glistrup formed the new Progress Party (Fremskridspartiet) in 1971 with demands for less state power, less bureaucracy and lower taxes. Early on, demands for less immigration to Denmark also became a main issue. The party immediately achieved great success and became the country’s second largest party in the 1973 parliamentary elections.
How did the establishment react to this? Mogens Glistrup, the party’s founder, was reported to the police and charged with serious tax crimes. He and the party were accused of populism, racism and right-wing extremism. It was seldom that the representatives of the established parties debated factually with Glistrup, but from their side it was all about personal attacks to make Mogens Glistrup a person and the Progress Party a party that a decent person would not or could not vote for. The tactic was a character assassination of Glistrup and his followers.
In Norway, Anders Lange was inspired by Mogens Glistrup and formed his party in 1973 which first bore his name, but later changed its name to Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party). The political demands were the same as for the Danish party with demands for less bureaucracy and large tax cuts. Also in the Norwegian Progress Party, immigration soon became a major distinguishing issue. In the same way as in Denmark, the new party was met with insults, not with debate on substantive issues.
In Sweden, it took around 20 years before a similar, new right-wing party, Ny Demokrati, was formed. The talking points were the same and the response was the same with accusations of populism, racism and xenophobia. It took a long time before the traditional, bourgeois parties in Scandinavia changed their attitude and began to cooperate with the new right-wing parties. For a long time all the traditional parties agreed to condemn and distance themselves from the new parties and all promised each other and the voters never to cooperate with these parties.
In Sweden, a new right-wing party, the Sweden Democrats, won seats in the Parliament in 2010 and all the established parties, from left to right, distanced themselves from the Sweden Democrats. Their MP’s did not greet Sweden Democrats in the corridors. They even left coffee machines when a Sweden Democrat approached. And so they continued until 2019, almost ten years, when the party leader of the Christian Democrats shocked the entire Swedish establishment by inviting the party leader of the Sweden Democrats to lunch with political talks. She and her staff had simply grown tired of the mechanical accusations of racism, xenophobia, populism. They also recognized that refusing to engage with the new right-wing party was benefiting the Social Democrats while undermining the possibility of forming a majority and securing a viable government.
It took another six months before the party leader of the largest right-wing party invited the Sweden Democrats to talks. Then it went quickly. After the 2022 election, the liberal conservative parties secured a majority in the Parliament through an extensive cooperation agreement with the Sweden Democrats. It dealt with all major policy areas where the Sweden Democrats, among other things, were heard for a new and conservative immigration policy.
Denmark and Norway were about 20 years ahead of Sweden in this development, and the traditional right-wing parties have long had an established collaboration with the new popular right-wing parties. In all the Nordic countries the pattern is the same. First, condemnations and promises to never cooperate and eventually via more superficial contacts to full cooperation and also an offer of government cooperation.
Of course, the attitude of the voters has also had an impact on the changed attitude of the established parties. When the Sweden Democrats entered the Parliament in 2010, they received roughly five percent of the vote. In the 2022 election, they got twenty percent. It is thus the people, not the established parties, who first gave the new right-wing parties democratic legitimacy. The same applies in Germany, where the AfD now gathers around 20 percent of the voters and, before the election, looks set to become the country’s second largest party. Finally, the voters of the traditional right and later also politicians will demand cooperation with the AfD in order to get a majority and be able to implement right-wing politics in the Bundestag. The more distancing and smearing in the beginning, the longer it will take to give it up. However, the firewall will come down.