Austria: populists score historic win
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The Germans don't need to ban the AFD. They've already succeeded in neutering them for the next election cycle. They and their media allies astroturfed the BSW as a "left-wing anti-immigrant" alternative (led by an Iranian) to siphon votes away from the AFD. In all of the recent regional elections it worked, and the first thing the BSW did was immediately rule out any coalition that included the AFD.
Dag, couple of points:
(1) There is absolutely nothing strange about a half-Iranian opposing wokeness and immigration. If you care at all about the country you live in, you will oppose being flooded by violent, barbaric savages. I'm 0% rather than 50% European, and I don't want any immigrants.
(2) The private opinions of politicians matter little to nothing. They will do whatever benefits them. What do you think will happen if a party runs on anti-immigration platform and then fails to deliver? That's the worst case scenario. Then the voters move to the AfD - for whom a straight jump to the AfD would probably be too much.
(3) BSW is actually OK, better than the establishment, she takes votes from the establishment, and it's not promoted by the media to my knowledge, and she's attacked by Antifa. I take a more objective stance, and I'll take anti-establishment where I can find it.
Except she's just proven that she isn't anti-establishment, by openly encouraging her regional leaders to ticket up with any establishment party they can in order to lock the AFD out of government in all three regions.
That was to be expected. The mistake you make is in assuming that all or even most BSW supporters would support the AfD if she weren't there. You don't know just how much the AfD has been demonized.
There is a far greater change of them going to the AfD if she disappoints them.
I'm well aware of the visceral nature of anti-AFD propaganda. I'm also aware of what happened to the AFD's polling immediately after the formation of the BSW was announced and the German media went all in on contrasting and attacking both parties. A significant number of BSW voters would have voted AFD in their absence.
Right now, migration and the Russia/Ukraine war are far and away the two most important issues to German voters. The BSW has gained traction by opposing the establishment parties on both issues. And yet even in Thuringia, where the AFD and the BSW between them have enough seats to form a government without the need for any other parties, Wagenknecht and her regional leaders chose to rule out a coalition with the AFD, the only other party that agrees with them on both of those issues, and instead pursue government formation with the establishment parties that have proven track records on both issues that are fundamentally at odds with the BSW's stated values.
This was always their purpose.
someone who is half-foreign has no business or standing to be in politics in either country.