re: #337 HappyWarrior

Pegida took hold mainly in eastern cities such as Dresden, and it is in the ex-communist east that AfD has had its biggest successes, attracting more men than any other party. Odd perhaps, in that the biggest concentrations of immigrants are not in those areas.

I don’t think that’s odd at all. Our biggest fears about immigrants and immigration come from areas where they make up a small percentage of the population. I believe Britain experienced the same with the Brexit vote. Interesting that the far right’s biggest appeal though is in the heart of the former DDR though.

West Germans have been living with immigrants for decades. They have had their problems, but have generally learned to get along.

For that, the residents of East Germany knew only North Korean and Vietnamese guest workers and African exchange students until the the post-unification government started settling refugees among them, to which they reacted rather negatively, sometimes quite violently.

One of the AfD’s slogans is: “We have money to take in a million refugees, but we don’t have money to help our own poor!”

To which Gregor Gysi, leader of the Left Party, replied “Don’t worry, even without refugees, there would be no money for the poor!”