Reaction to AfD election victory | Contentless half-sentences in a continuous loop

Portrait of AfD top candidate Ulrich Siegmund in the shape of a heart: It is still unclear whether the right-wing party can govern a federal state for the first time. Photo: dpa/Sebastian Gollnow It is not healthy to empathize with AfD voters. I tried it briefly on Sunday. When I heard the first statements from celebrities from the CDU and SPD after the seemingly endlessly growing blue bar, I imagined how I would feel now if I had just voted for the AfD. Maybe by exclusion principle, because I haven't forgotten Friedrich Merz's broken promises and I don't believe the SPD can achieve "fair rents". And because I ignore the fact that the neoliberal AfD is the last to promise improvement in social policy, of course.

So I turn on the TV, see that my stupid little protest vote contributed to such a big bar; Then I look at what the other parties are saying. Was it such a clever move by the CDU to let the intern take the microphone instead of the new general secretary? Or is that really Franziska Hoppermann? Was there no one else who wanted to do the job?

Christoph Ruf is a freelance author and observes political and sporting events here.

The woman with the job that Heiner Geißler once held, for example, stuttered two meaningless half-sentences 18 times. Afterwards she looked into the camera just as irritated as interviewer Markus Preiß, who couldn't believe that there still wasn't more. Hoppermann had enough time beforehand to plan more than: nothing. After all, she knew weeks in advance that her party would face a debacle. Two hours after she found out how drastic it had been, all she could think of during the ARD talk was the nonsense statement that the left had a "serious anti-Semitism problem." She only has a Luigi Pantisano problem, because the party leader has repeatedly made the headlines with verbal abuse. But that's really hard.

SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf was also there. And he was seriously pleased that his party didn't break the five percent hurdle. The fact that, as with the Greens, 70 to 80 percent of their voters only voted for them in order to prevent the AfD does not seem to be seen as a declaration of bankruptcy. That leaves the BSW, where you probably have to get used to the fact that the surveys are always completely wrong. This time the forecast was three percent, a deviation of 57 percent from the actual result. At BSW it's easy to get caught up in conspiracy theories, but gradually the polling glitches become noticeable.

Be that as it may, if I were the BSW I would make myself a few cocktails, put my feet up and watch in peace as the AfD and CDU dismantle themselves. Some because they are suddenly on the verge of having to implement all of their completely unrealistic election promises - and are obviously incredibly afraid of it. And the CDU, because it is gradually realizing that if it maintains the firewall, it will no longer have a head of government in the foreseeable future. Since the will to power has always been the central motive for joining the party in the Union, everyone whose career opportunities are now massively threatened will be on the mat.

In any case, I'm looking forward to the coming days. If the CDU and AfD tear themselves apart, no one else will have to do the dirty work.

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