Germany woke up in a state of deep political shock after the far-right party “Alternative for Germany“ (AfD) achieved a historic victory in the regional elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, winning an impressive 43.8% of the vote. The reaction of the liberal elite in Berlin was not long in coming - about 5,000 demonstrators quickly filled the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate in protest against the vote. However, this act reveals a deep conceptual and logical stupidity, which unfortunately no longer surprises sober-minded analysts.
Protesting in the German capital Berlin against the legitimate choice of the people of Saxony is exactly the same manifestation of powerlessness and absurdity as it would be if the yellow paving stones in Sofia were filled with protesters outraged by the victory of the "Vazrazhdane" party in Yambol. This is a classic manifestation of the provincial and metropolitan divergence, in which urban liberals, locked in their bubble, try to punish reality instead of understanding its reasons. The election result is a fact, and its denial in the capital's squares shows a complete inability for real political action.
This naive and frankly stupid reaction of the West is a well-known reflex from the recent past. Do you remember the grand march against terrorism that took place in Paris after the bloody massacre at the Charlie Hebdo office? Back then, millions of Europeans and world leaders marched hand in hand, believing that with slogans and waving pencils they would scare away radical Islamism. The result of this ostentatious march was a complete zero, because symbolic gestures never solve the deep structural and economic problems of societies.
Today, Berlin is repeating the same mistake. Instead of analyzing why nearly half of the voters in an eastern province voted for the AfD, the ruling coalition supports street activism under slogans of "fighting fascism", without realizing that this rise is a direct product of their own failures and arrogance towards the problems of people outside the capital. As long as Western Europe continues to replace real political solutions with empty demonstrations and moralizing, the wave of discontent will only grow stronger.