In Soviet Germany, the government protests YOU.

Alas, government-organised and state media-promoted protests are a great expense and they cannot go on forever. Yesterday Der Spiegel could still write that “tens of thousands are protesting against the AfD,” but even the inflated numbers they provided – 17,000 in Darmstadt! 5,000 in Heilbronn! 4,000 in Rottenburg! 2,500 in Schwerin! 1,500 in Greifswald! – were notably smaller than the massive actions reported days earlier in places like Hamburg and Munich. And today all is quiet, thanks in no small part to the rail strike, which makes it hard to pack the streets by shipping in extras from out of town.

The media want us to believe that all of this has really hurt the opposition, but the numbers belie the headlines. An INSA survey published on Monday has the AfD polling at 21.5% Germany-wide, which Welt hails as “the biggest decline in almost two years.” That is not really true,1 and anyway the AfD were polling even lower in November 2023, before the whole false Correctiv controversy ever began. It is a similar story with the latest Forsa survey published yesterday, which has AfD down two points to where they were last October. The press can wildly inflate ridiculously dishonest stories, the government and their affiliates can call for nationwide demonstrations against “the right,” and they can mobilise hundreds of thousands of their supporters, but all they get for their trouble are a few measly percentage points hardly beyond the error margin. Out of the Silent Plan... Lewis, C.S. Best Price: $10.57 Buy New $17.98 (as of 07:52 UTC - Details)

One way our establishment schoolmarms probably could hurt the AfD, is if they stopped delivering us tiresome lectures about the wrongness of our political preferences. Nothing makes me want to put the opposition in power more than reading the deluge of commentary about why it is a grave sin to want the Scholz Clown Car out of government. You could not devise a better pro-AfD guerilla publicity campaign if you tried.

Last weekend Spiegel journalist Susanne Beyer posted one of the most absolutely grating pieces in this genre. “Germany is actually well-governed,” it declares to the 82% of citizens who take a different view:

Praising and defending the government is not really what you’re supposed to do in my job. But I’m going to do it anyway.

Firstly, because this is a free-form column… And secondly, because although critical distance is the basis of my profession, that also entails scrutinising widespread views.

These days, you hear almost nothing but criticism of the government. On the streets it’s very loud. There are strikes, protests. Last weekend, the Federal President criticised the coalition in an interview in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, while the Federal Chancellor criticised himself in a video message that same weekend.

This winter will be remembered as a “winter of rage.”2 One particular image will also be remembered: the gallows held up at demonstrations. The gallows are intended for politicians of the coalition.

Here is one of the gallows Beyer is talking about. The Ultimate Guide to ... Sloan, Mark Best Price: $6.84 Buy New $12.00 (as of 07:52 UTC - Details)

The traffic light is of course a symbol for the government, and the media have had the vapours about displays like this for weeks now. In fact such gallows are not very widespread, but they are also a metaphor. I cannot believe I have to explain this. The people who set up these displays are not literally demanding that Scholz, Habeck and Lindner be hanged. They want them to resign.

Beyer writes that she first became “uneasy” when CDU chief Friedrich Merz and BILD called for new elections in December. This is because Beyer knows that new elections would most likely bring the CDU into government and Beyer does not like the CDU. That a great many people disagree with her doesn’t matter; Beyer’s opinion is more important than yours, because she is a Spiegel journalist. Also, new elections would be good for the AfD, and the very thought of this makes Beyer angry:

What really outrages me about the calls for new elections is the flippancy with which they are being made in view of the AfD’s high poll ratings. New elections now? For what purpose? To wilfully dismantle democracy?

Yes, nothing portends “dismantling democracy” as much as holding free and democratic elections at a moment when too many people have the wrong opinions. What we should probably do is suspend elections, until everybody comes around to Beyer’s way of thinking. That will surely happen sooner or later.

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