Germany held general elections last weekend, the results of which are a great object of curiosity.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc, headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, won the elections, with Merkel's CDU dropping 9 percent from the previous elections.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the second-largest party in the country, sustained a heavy electoral debacle. The SPD, which was a partner in the coalition of the previous government, had not received such a low vote in any election since World War II. SPD leader Martin Schulz announced he would not resign, admitting that the party sustained a heavy defeat.
Certainly, the most frightening result in the German elections was the fact that the extreme right wing entered parliament with a great boom in their vote share. The fascist, anti-Islam and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) entered the Bundestag as the third party with 13.3 percent of the vote.
This means that an extreme right-wing party will be represented in the German parliament for the first time since World War II.
Moreover, Schulz said that they have become "the opposition" for now, but it all depends on politics. In case the SPD is in a possible coalition, the AfD could be Germany's main opposition party.
So, who is responsible for this dark picture? Why did millions of conservatives and social democrats shift to the fascist AfD? Why has the fascism that threatens all of Europe reappeared in Germany after so many years?
The answer is clear.
All German politicians who succumbed to populism for just a few votes from nationalists are responsible for this. All parties, from Merkel's CDU to Schulz's SPD and Cem Özdemir's Greens, helped nationalism.
Think about the pre-election atmosphere in Germany. All politicians turned Turkey and Turks, who are a symbol of minorities in Germany, into a target. They embraced coup plotters and members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and the PKK who fled Turkey. They welcomed agent provocateurs at Bellevue Palace. They did not allow the Turkish president to make a speech in Germany where over 2 million people of Turkish origin live.
In short, they competed in nationalism with parties and groups like the AfD, providing legitimacy for bigoted and discriminatory politics and rhetoric of these populist groups. They voiced and normalized extremes by the center.
Consequently, as has always happened, the electorate did not incline toward the replica when there is the original and voted for the AfD.
To explain with a common proverb, German central politics, which sowed the wind before elections, reaped the whirlwind in the elections.
What is done cannot be undone. As Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said, it is time to return to normal, mind one's own business and turn over a new leaf between the two countries. And to achieve this, it is imperative that German politicians and other European countries on the brink of the same abyss learn lessons from these elections and soundly critique themselves.
