In the past, AfD voters have been reluctant to talk on camera about backing the party – not anymore. DW correspondent Matthew Moore went to Bernau near Berlin to find out out why one in three people voted for the AfD.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Carnival in Germany. A chance to mock the political establishment.
00:07Here in the East, that now includes the AFD.
00:17But while they take jabs at the far-right's lack of vision,
00:20there are plenty here who say they back the alternative for Germany.
00:26We wanted to change something, quite simply in politics,
00:29because it's always just about wealth.
00:31And the small businesses, they can pack up because of the last government.
00:36They've ruined a lot of things.
00:38If you have the chance to change things, then you change them,
00:41even if that's through the AFD.
00:44In the past, AFD voters have been reluctant to talk on camera about backing the party.
00:49Not anymore. Some vote out of frustration.
00:53Because the others had their chance and they produced so much crap,
00:58you can't trust them anymore.
01:01Others point to recent deadly attacks carried out by migrants.
01:06It can't keep going the way things have been going in Germany.
01:10With all these attacks, they are all stacking up.
01:14I was hoping for some positive change in our country.
01:19I voted for the AFD because things are a mess in Germany.
01:28My problem started in 2015, when the borders were opened.
01:35Perhaps surprisingly, the anti-immigration AFD
01:38is most successful in places with fewer foreigners.
01:42Some scientists attribute this to a lack of positive experiences with immigrants.
01:46Over lunch, we meet a man who didn't vote for the AFD.
01:51I used to be a bit right-wing during East German times.
01:54It was a bit worse.
01:56I come from Eberswalde, which used to be really far right.
02:00But I've got a great colleague I always worked well with.
02:03I got to see a different side.
02:08So your colleague has a migration background.
02:11What did that do for you?
02:14It's all fine.
02:16He's 30 years old and has been working with us for eight or nine years.
02:20He's always there.
02:24Back at the carnival, frustration when asked about the AFD.
02:29It's been the same story for thousands of years.
02:32It's been foreigners and others to blame, not yourself.
02:37If you don't stand up for society,
02:39if you don't take responsibility,
02:41but just crow about the many foreigners,
02:44the poor people who don't want to go to work.
02:47It's all just stupid stuff.
02:53Today, carnival is the preferred antidote to the politics of populism.
02:57But in the long term, politicians may need to come up with a better answer.