by Ed West, Spectator
Berlin is a wonderful city, even if its hipster vibe is a bit much for a square like me. The decadence is part of the charm, and the Germans, or at least the Prussians, are good at it, having enough sense of order that it can feel squalid without feeling unsafe.
When I most recently visited the German capital last year, there seemed to be quite a bleak mood. The politics of sustained boredom that characterised the successful post-war Federal Republic had run out of road, and a mindset which had worked for so long now seemed to be pushing the country to the brink of disaster. As someone who loves Germany and admires its culture, I find this very sad, although at least it provides a brief distraction from my own country’s woes.
That mood will not have been improved by two recent elections, the first of which brought Alternative für Deutschland to the brink of power in Saxony-Anhalt and the second a spectacular result for Die Linke, the successor party of the East German Communists, in Berlin.
What explains this support for the AfD? Is it affordability? Is it nostalgia for an era that didn’t exist, driven by inequality? Perhaps it’s AI. There is an elephant in the room, but people will go through all sorts of mental gymnastics to avoid mentioning it.