In Germany’s east, old ties to Moscow fuel AfD rise

{"text":[[{"start":9.14,"text":"Martina Mielke, a former crane driver at Rostock’s old Neptun shipyard, recalls partying with the Russian crew of a newly delivered ship during East Germany’s heyday."}],[{"start":19.02,"text":"“It was just like in a movie! ‘Sto gramm!’” said Mielke, invoking the Russian expression for a 100ml serving of vodka. “You weren’t allowed to chicken out. There was bread, bacon, black tea. They were so friendly.”"}],[{"start":33.06,"text":"Her experience, and that of many others in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, points to a view of Russia that has helped the far-right Alternative for Germany top opinion polls in this part of the country."}],[{"start":45.02,"text":"The party recently secured a historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt, another former state in the German Democratic Republic, as East Germany was known, and is on track to come first in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s regional election on Sunday, polling at about 37 per cent."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":61.18,"text":"Nearly five years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many here still oppose cutting trade and diplomatic ties with Russia, as well as the massive rearmament drive the war has unleashed in Europe’s largest country."}],[{"start":74.2,"text":"Even as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government warns of Moscow’s escalating “hybrid war”, after an explosives-laden drone was found at Leipzig airport last month, nearly two-thirds of voters in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern see Vladimir Putin’s nation as posing “little or no threat”, according to a poll published last week by local newspaper Ostsee-Zeitung."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":94.9,"text":"By contrast, 59 per cent of voters in western Germany regard Russia as a strong or very strong threat, according to an ARD survey published this month."}],[{"start":103.98,"text":"“There are differences between east and west, on arms deliveries to Ukraine, on the perception of Putin and Russia, and that’s to do with history,” said Steffen Mau, sociologist at Humboldt University in Berlin."}],[{"start":116.7,"text":"People in the communist GDR were more accepting of Soviet soldiers than those in other occupied European countries, given the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi regime, including against the Red Army. After reunification, eastern Germans became citizens of a Nato member state, but scepticism towards the US-led alliance endured."}],[{"start":136.3,"text":"“East Germans were very cautious about the expansion of Nato towards central and eastern Europe,” Mau said."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":142.38,"text":"That enduring affinity for Russia has been reinforced by the economic pain of Germany’s break from cheap Russian energy and lingering resentment over the upheavals that followed reunification."}],[{"start":152.5,"text":"Together, those forces have created fertile ground for the Russia-friendly, Eurosceptic AfD, just as Germany has become Ukraine’s biggest military donor under Merz."}],[{"start":163.14,"text":"An AfD win in the state of just over 1.5mn people could have national repercussions for Merz and his coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":172.62,"text":"The chancellor’s CDU has slumped below 7 per cent in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and risks missing the 5 per cent threshold to enter the regional assembly. Ejection from the legislature in the home state of Angela Merkel, the former CDU chancellor, would be a serious blow to Merz, who is battling record-low polls and an internal rebellion in his party."}],[{"start":193.18,"text":"During his only campaign appearance last month in Kühlungsborn, a Baltic Sea resort, Merz was booed and heckled as a “warmonger”. Last week, Tino Schomann, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s CDU deputy leader, called on the chancellor to quit."}],[{"start":207.38,"text":"In the final days of the campaign, anti-AfD mobilisation appears to be benefiting the ruling SPD, which has led successive state coalitions since 1998."}],[{"start":218.14,"text":"Once an advocate of close ties with Moscow, state premier Manuela Schwesig has recast herself as a bulwark against the far right. In the SPD’s red, her campaign posters declare: “Die Frau gegen Blau” — “the woman against blue”, a reference to the AfD’s signature colour."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":234.46,"text":"Schwesig has also faced growing pressure to explain her U-turn on Moscow. For years she championed the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany, which comes ashore in the state. The pipelines were blown up in a sabotage operation in September 2022, which German authorities suspect was carried out by a Ukrainian commando."}],[{"start":256.42,"text":"Russia had become a “very controversial” issue and the AfD was exploiting it to “polarise” the campaign, Schwesig said in Rostock on Monday."}],[{"start":264.86,"text":"She warned against labelling people with a pacifist or religious background as Putin apologists — or Putinversteher. Equally, she said, “I don’t think it’s good when those who say Ukraine must be supported, including militarily, are insulted as warmongers.”"}],[{"start":280.12,"text":"Leif-Erik Holm, the AfD’s candidate for state premier, said his party wanted to “make sure that we don’t end up in a war”. Born behind the Iron Curtain, he warned it would be wrong to “slide back into a cold war — hopefully only a cold war — lasting for decades”."}],[{"start":295.52,"text":"At a town-hall meeting Schwesig hosted in Rostock, Hannelore, a 73-year-old scientist born in East Berlin, said she would not vote for the AfD because it wants Germany to leave the Eurozone. But she said “this nonsensical war” in Ukraine, which “costs so much money and so many lives”, was the main driver of the party’s support alongside immigration."}],[{"start":316.22,"text":"She vented at what she saw as the German government’s portrayal of Russia as “our eternal enemy”, and Berlin’s readiness to blame Moscow for recent hybrid attacks."}],[{"start":324.66,"text":"“It’s the Russians before anything’s even been investigated . . . This anti-Russian rhetoric makes me sick,” she said."}],[{"start":331.62,"text":"Mau said the resurgence of Russia-friendly sentiment in the East was partly because of the economic disruptions caused by the war."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":338.74,"text":"Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has become a tourist draw, bringing families to its Baltic beaches. But its economy and society remain scarred by the shock of reunification. The state has lost about 15 per cent of its population since 1990 as young people moved west, among them Mielke’s daughter."}],[{"start":359.34,"text":"Neptun, once an industrial giant that employed 6,500 people and built large merchant vessels for the Soviet bloc, shed more than three-quarters of its workforce within two years. Its surviving business, focused on river cruise ships, employs about 650 people."}],[{"start":377.94,"text":"After losing her job at the shipyard, which she had joined at 18, Mielke took whatever work she could find, including as a saleswoman for a painting company, until retirement."}],[{"start":388.48,"text":"“People were upset,” she said of being laid off. “You got your notice — just a piece of paper, and then you would go to one of those transitional agencies to get a bit of money.”"}],[{"start":397.9,"text":"“I’d never experienced anything like that before. I felt stupid, angry and disappointed — and there wasn’t even a little farewell party. Nothing at all.”"}],[{"start":408.7,"text":"Additional reporting by Laura Pitel in Berlin"}],[{"start":417.29,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789548805_2078.mp3"}