During Germany’s recent general elections a populist party called Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) reached 12 percent of the votes, sending 90 of its members to the German Parliament. While populism is often expected to thrive in a country undergoing a crisis, Germany is viewed as the most stable European country both economically and politically. Until this election, the traumatic experience of Nazism had made German society resistant to voting for Far-Right parties. The speaker will discuss three phenomena that may explain the rising influence of populist conservatism in Germany: 1. the underestimated social cost of adapting to a global economy 2. the Christian Democrats' low appeal among conservative voters after Angela Merkel's ten-year rule 3. the waning influence of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) - two pillars of Germany's postwar political system.
