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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/13/the-far-right-is-becoming-normalised-in-germany-and-winning-australia-should-take-heed-ntwnfb>
"The recent win for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany is
shocking, except it’s not shocking. The writing has been on the wall for quite
some time.
Last Sunday, the far-right, pro-Russian and anti-immigration AfD won almost 44%
of the vote in the election in Saxony-Anhalt, a largely rural state in the
former East Germany, more than doubling its previous result and finishing far
ahead of the Christian Democrats.
It sits within a troubling global trend. In 2025, nearly one in four countries
worldwide experienced democratic backsliding, with Europe and North America
home to six of the 10 countries newly identified as autocratising, including
Italy, the UK and the US.
Despite the cultural and historical differences, Australia is not immune. We
cannot afford to be complacent.
This time last year, I travelled to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a predominantly
rural region in Germany’s north-east, to examine the culture of the far right
and its counter-responses as part of my research. Like Saxony-Anhalt, it’s an
area where the AfD has significant support. My colleagues and I spent days
walking the streets of towns and cities, including Rostock and Greifswald, as
well as attending an anti-fascist music festival. We wanted to understand how
extremism was encountered and expressed in everyday life. But what we found, or
more precisely did not find, surprised us."
Via Muse.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
