According to the study, AfD voters would suffer the most from AfD policies

Zoom Image

State party convention of the AfD Lower Saxony (on 19 August in Celle)

Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa

"Who would you vote for if there were federal elections on Sunday?" – According to current polls, the answer to this question is for one-fifth of the Germans surveyed: Alternative for Germany (AfD). However, a new study by the Institute for Economic Research (DIW) now finds that the main victims of AfD politics would be their own voters.

»AfD paradox«

For the study, the individual attitudes of the party were compared with the concerns of supporters in the Wahl-O-Mat for the 2021 Bundestag election specified by the Federal Agency for Civic Education. The result: a "remarkable paradox". According to the report, the supporters of the AfD would suffer from the party's policies in almost all political areas: both in terms of the economy and taxes, as well as climate protection, social security, democracy and globalization.

The analysis shows, for example, that the AfD stands for an "extreme neoliberal economic and financial policy", as it wants to curtail the role of the state and increase the power of the market. In social policy, no party would like to see stronger cuts, writes study author Marcel Fratzscher also on X, formerly Twitter. In addition, however, it is evident that AfD voters often have less social participation, and their income and education tend to be low to medium-high.

The DIW states: "If the AfD policy were to prevail, there would be a redistribution of income and social benefits from AfD voters to voters of other parties."

When it comes to climate policy, there is also no party that rejects measures more systematically, Fratzscher said. In addition, the party differs most strongly from all other parties in the Bundestag in social policy by wanting to curtail rights and freedoms, especially for minorities. In addition, it is the only party that wants to abolish or massively curtail the European Union (EU).

"How can it be that a fifth of citizens support the policies of a party that is strongly contrary to their own well-being and interests?" asks Fratzscher on X. According to his study, this is due to an incorrect self-assessment of many AfD supporters as well as a misjudgement of social reality.

"Exactly the opposite would happen"

Many of the AfD voters would not realize that they themselves would be strongly negatively affected by a "policy of discrimination and exclusion": "AfD voters in particular would be severely negatively affected by job losses, poorer infrastructure and fewer benefits, a weakening of the European Union or tax cuts for top earners," the study says.

On a social level, the wrong assessment of AfD supporters looks like this: "Quite a few AfD voters are convinced that a reversal of globalization, a strengthening nationalism and a neoliberal economic, financial and social policy would provide them personally with better jobs, more security and better opportunities. Yet exactly the opposite would happen."

aeh