Rise of Germany’s UKIP gives the EU another headache

German voters back AfD
[image credit: BBC]

Recent voting successes for the ‘Alternative for Germany’ party, which in some respects is similar to UKIP, have ‘upset the chemistry of German politics’ according to a Daily Telegraph report. Oh dear, how awful (!).

Report: ‘Attempts to discredit the party as a Right-wing fringe group have failed.’ A familiar tactic with the same result as in the UK.

Although they don’t advocate leaving the EU altogether, they are opposed to Germany being a member of the ‘eurozone’ currency union.

From the DT report:

The stunning rise of Germany’s anti-euro party threatens to paralyse efforts to hold the eurozone together and may undermine any quantitative easing by the European Central Bank, Standard & Poor’s has warned.

Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has swept through Germany like a tornado, winning 12.6pc of the vote in Brandenburg and 10.6pc in Thuringia a week ago. The party has broken into three regional assemblies, after gaining its first platform in Strasbourg with seven euro-MPs.

The rating agency said AfD’s sudden surge has become a credit headache for the whole eurozone, forcing Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a tougher line in European politics and risking an entirely new phase of the crisis. “Until recently, no openly Eurosceptic party in Germany has been able to galvanise opponents of European ‘bail-outs’. But this comfortable position now appears to have come to an end,” it said.

The report warned that AfD has upset the chemistry of German politics, implying even greater resistance to any loosening of EMU fiscal rules. It raises the political bar yet further for serious QE, and therefore makes the tool less usable.

There has long been anger in Germany over the direction of EMU politics, with a near universal feeling that German taxpayers are being milked to prop up southern Europe, but dissidents were until now scattered. “AfD appears to enjoy a disciplined leadership, and is a well-funded party appealing to conservatives more broadly, beyond its europhobe core,” it said. “This shift in the partisan landscape could have implications for euro area policies by diminishing the German government’s room for manoeuvre. We will monitor any signs of Germany hardening its stance.”

Read more here: Germany's Ukip threatens to paralyse eurozone rescue efforts – Telegraph.

The report concludes:
‘The political climate in the eurozone’s two core states is now extraordinary. A D-Mark party is running at 10pc in the latest polls in Germany, while the Front National’s Marine Le Pen is in the lead in France on 26pc with calls for a return to the franc. One more shock would test EMU cohesion to its limits.’