Europe elections indicate recession of extremism wave in Germany

Ahmed Lamloum

Recent results of latest European elections showed a change in how Germans react to the different political fronts, which witnessed many years of focusing on assaults by radical Islamists and taking advantage of the far-right to climb to the throne of power.

The biggest surprise was the decline in the popularity of the far right at the country level, with about 11% of the votes, lower than the result of the 2017 legislative elections. This also affected the popularity of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), which receded seven points in comparison with the previous election to reach 22.6%.

Moreover, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was also able to only receive 15% of the votes, down more than 11 points in comparison to the previous election, while on the other hand, the centre-left party was knocked from second position by the Greens, which surged to between 20.5 and 22 percent.

The number of voters turnout during these elections reached around 51% of the total number of voters, recording its highest since 1994, not to mention the participation of youths who sought to stand against extremist far-right parties.

This was not the only change in the scene, as Islamist groups have also decreased their presence. The country has not witnessed retaliatory terrorist attacks in response to the defeat of Daesh in Iraq and Syria as some feared, and the security services also took new measures to better deal with the danger those people.

Chancellor Angela Merkel in February inaugurated a massive, $1.23 billion complex, which stands on 26 hectares (about 64 acres), to serve as the world’s largest intelligence service headquarters.

Moreover, a travel ban was imposed on Islamists to prevent them from going to Syria and Iraq; and last April, the German cabinet approved a bill aimed at deterring future militants from traveling abroad to fight in terrorist groups.

In July 2016, a teenage Afghan refugee hacked at passengers on a train in Wuerzburg with an axe and knife, wounding five. He was shot dead by police.

Also during the same month, a woman has been killed and two others have been injured after they were attacked by a Syrian refugee with a machete near Stuttgart in Germany.

Moreover, on July 2016, a failed Syrian asylum seeker has blown himself up and injured 12 other people with a backpack bomb near a festival in the south German town of Ansbach.

The 27-year-old man, who faced deportation to Bulgaria, detonated the device after being refused entry to the music festival, Bavarian officials say.

Moreover, a tractor trailer barreled into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin in Dec. 2016, killing 12 people and injuring 49 others.

The truck driver, Anis Amri, a Tunisian, was later shot dead by the police in Milan.