Heavy defeat for government parties – Strengthened Internationalist Alliance

1. Merkel government rebuked and weakened

The government parties CDU, CSU and SPD suffered a dramatic loss of votes, far more than were predicted in the polls. More than six million voters turned their backs on these parties’ politics for “billionaires, not workers.”

Whatever the outcome of the forming of the government, the new Merkel government will be significantly weakened. It will have less support in the population and many internal contradictions.

2. “Left-wing extremism campaign” played into the hands of the AfD

The shift to the right by the Merkel/Gabriel government – against refugees and migrants and so-called “left-wing extremism” – played directly into the hands of the “Alternative for Germany,” AfD. Völkisch and racist positions were made socially acceptable in talk shows and newspapers; open fascists and previously hidden fascists in the AfD ventured from the cover of the party’s bourgeois-conservative image.

Thus, chiefly the tendency to the right was strengthened this time in the societal polarization. However, votes of potential supporters also went to the Left Party or the Greens, seeking to prevent AfD from becoming the third strongest force. ...

3. Best result to date for the Internationalist List/MLPD

With 29,928 second votes (for the party list; 0.1 percent) and 39,411 first votes (for direct candidates from the MLPD and individual candidates from the Internationalist Alliance) we significantly increased our voting results compared with the votes for the MLPD in 2009 and 2013. And the results stack up well against the previous best result attained in 2005. Owing to the many votes for our direct candidates we won more voters than in 2005.

At least 62,000 persons, compared with 56,000 in 2005, gave us one or both votes. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Berlin the Internationalist List/MLPD scored its best results to date, in absolute terms, also for second votes. In most cases it was workers and young people who did particularly well as candidates for direct mandates. …