West Germany vs East Germany – what a difference 35 years makes 😬
Perhaps as predicted, but still, this map of the second vote in yesterday’s German election is pretty startling.
The former West goes almost completely conservative right (even my Heidelberg, a Green redoubt, wtf?), while the former communist East goes almost full fascist.
The places not following those trends bear discussion too: Kaiserslautern, Gelsenkirchen, East Berlin, Hamburg etc.
@markmccaughrean as much as it is a difference in preferences, it is also a difference in turnout:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_German_federal_election#/media/File%3ABundestagswahl_2025_Wahlbeteiligung.svg
A big part of this is about detachment.
@markmccaughrean @mapto many of the voters that did not vote in the last elections voted for AfD. So not sure if your conclusion is the right one to draw…
@markmccaughrean @mapto yes, lools like it. But still, looks like AfD profited from this higher turnout. Although it’s hard to say, because we only have the „voter migration“ numbers on a national level (see my prev post)
@mapto Interesting. I mean, very crudely put, it looks as though the west got the message about getting out & voting (those are high numbers) to prevent a huge swing to the far-right, but they obviously couldn’t change what was happening in the east.