Ahead of Sunday’s elections, the Protestant, Catholic and other churches ask to “vote for parties that stand up for our democracy”. Alice Weidel’s AfD party rises in the polls amid tough immigration debates.
The German Bundestag Kuppel in Berlin. / Photo: [link]Tim Simon[/link], Unsplash, CC0.
With much nervousness and after a progressive coalition government collapsed prematurely, Germans are voting on their future in the general election on Sunday 23 February.
If the course of Europe’s most populous country is important enough, it is even more so at a time when global change seems to be accelerating, in a week in which the US has moved closer to Russia and Ukraine is calling not to be abandoned after three years of war.
All indications are that Germans will vote for a new Bundestag (federal parliament) from which the conservative Friedrich Merz will emerge as the new chancellor, although the new leader of the CDU-CSU (Christian Democrats) would need to bring in another party for his future government.
Hundreds of thousands have protested in Berlin and elsewhere against the possibility of that fellow traveller being the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is expected to take a historic second place in the polls.
The far-right, nationalist formation has among its leaders those who have called for the demystification of the country’s Nazi history.
It has been the tough debate around immigration, and rejected asylum seekers in particular, that has been at the centre of the election campaign.
Germany’s main parties, including the still socialist chancellor Olaf Scholz, have abandoned the refugee welcoming policy initiated ten years ago by the influential Angela Merkel.
AfD’s candidate Alice Weidel calls for “closing the borders” and an iron fist after recent attacks by foreigners on innocent people in cities such as Magdeburg or Solingen in 2024.
The rise of the AfD and its public links to Donald Trump come at a time when neighbouring Austria’s far-right won elections in September.
In the midst of these tensions, the mainline Protestant (EKD) and Catholic Churches in Germany have come out to warn against the extreme right.
In a document published just two weeks before the elections, more than 20 other Christian bodies under ACK (Association of Christian Churches in Germany), call to “use our voice and stand up for democracy”.
In a clear reference to the AfD, the ecumenical platform (whose members also include the Baptist and Mennonite federations) writes: “We continue to believe that extremism and above all ethnic nationalism are incompatible with Christianity. This is why we appeal to all voters: Please vote for parties that defend our democracy”.
The signatories emphasise the need for a fair refugee policy and the protection of human dignity. They underline the need of having hope and confidence in the face of global crises, economic challenges and technological change.
They also call for a stronger Europe and a sustainable policy for the protection of the environment.
This kind of positioning, which is not new, has been criticised during the election campaign by a conservative party heavyweight, the Bavarian Markus Söder, who, identifying himself as a Christian, has said that the churches should “go back to talking more about the fundamentals of the Christian faith” and less about their political views.
For its part, the Evangelical Alliance of Germany (which unites mostly Christians from independent evangelical churches) called in the autumn for evangelicals to avoid polarising discourses and to be “bridge-builders and peace builders who believe that it is possible to bring opponents together in church, politics and society”.
In a recent interview with Evangelical Focus, co-chairman Frank Heinrich explained that he is aware that some Christians will vote for the extreme right because of its supposed defence of traditional Christian values, adding that silencing honest conversations was not the solution, because “we need to learn to disagree better”.
But Heinrich encouraged evangelical Christians to look beyond political slogans, and denounce situations in which minorities and fragile groups are attacked in an unjust and widespread manner.
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