Elections in Germany: populism is becoming the new norm in Europe

However, they are a symbol of change and epochs in European politics. For Ukraine, a symbol and a frankly bad one.

In Thuringia, nearly half of the votes went to parties that staunchly oppose aid to Ukraine—namely, the Alternative for Germany and the Sahra Wagenknecht party. In Saxony, the proportion was slightly lower, but not by much.

The parties of the government coalition got miserable results, and the opposition represented by the Christian Democrats was not surprising.

Now the question is who will form the state coalitions and whether this is even possible, but for Ukraine, these elections have confirmed two challenges.

The first is the difficulty of not only increasing but also maintaining German military aid. Now no one doubts that the reduction of this aid next year is not the result of the budget deficit alone; it is a reaction to changes in domestic political scenarios, the growing weight of pro-Russian populists, and, accordingly, the reduction of maneuverability in the government coalition, if it has any maneuverability at all.

But there is also a long-term challenge - Germany has become the last major European country where the mainstream parties of the 20th century - Christian, liberal and social democrats, as well as the Greens - no longer determine policy as they used to.

Instead, populists - left, right, and simply without direction - are able to win elections and offer their simple solutions. This will have a huge impact on the process of Ukraine's European integration - its terms and conditions - that we cannot even imagine yet. But we can already imagine the amount of effort and money that Russia has put into stopping and breaking Ukraine's path to the EU.

We (Ukraininans -ed.) have to learn to work with the “positive” populists, i.e. pro-Ukrainian populists, and we have to find leverage with the “negative” populists, i.e. pro-Russian populists, and we have to confront them with other populists. Europe will never be the same again, populism is the new normal, and we have to find a response to it. The price is Ukraine's path to the EU.

Source

About the author. Pavlo Klimkin, diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

The editors do not always share the views expressed by the authors of the blogs.