
Merkel’s Power Conundrum - dialoguediscou
https://medium.com/dialogue-and-discourse/merkels-power-conundrum-839b9aeff3e4
======
luckylion
This article gets basically everything wrong about German politics. No, the
AfD could not "very quickly [...] force their way into a coalition, and
eventually become the largest party in the Reichstag" (for one: it's called
Bundestag, it's just located in a building called the "Reichstagsgebäude").
Neither the right nor the left wing parties have gained substantially since
the last elections. Merkel has been a focus point for right wing engagement.

And lastly: "far right" is a problematic party attribution when the far right
is for all intents and purposes claiming policies that Merkel's CDU and her
personally claimed 10-15 years ago. It's correct to say that the AfD has lots
of far right members, though. It just hasn't shown up in their (stated)
political goals, as it does for the actual far right parties we have.

