Der vergessene Wähler

Abstract

At some point, long before the AfD existed, the large political parties in Germany alienated themselves from the electorate. The CDU/CSU and SPD only had themselves to blame for this loss of support, the reasons for which the head of ‘forsa’, Prof. Manfred Güllner, analyses in his new book ‘Der vergessene Wähler’ (The Forgotten Voter). He describes how voters and non-voters have perceived and evaluated politicians and political parties since the beginning of the second attempt to establish democracy in Germany, and how party strategists for both the CDU/CSU and the SPD disregarded the people’s wishes, hopes, fears and expectations for decades. Instead, both German politics and the media increasingly focused on marginal issues and fringe groups, largely ignoring the cares and concerns of the vast majority, that is, the often praised but increasingly neglected middle of society, in return; the logical consequence of which was the massive growth of the ‘Partei der Nichtwähler’ (Party of Non-voters). Güllner’s examination of the history of political parties in Germany after the collapse of National Socialism reveals the people’s drastic loss of trust in the once popular parties. The author’s analysis concludes with the question of whether this development is irreversible or whether the major parties’ long-standing affliction can be cured. The second, revised and updated edition of this book considers the development of the (major) political parties in Germany up to and including the national elections in 2021. Prof. Manfred Güllner is the head and founder of the ‘Gesellschaft für Sozialforschung und statistische Analysen (Society for Societal Research and Statistical Analyses), abbreviated to ‘forsa’. For more than four decades, he has been among the most eminent electoral researchers in Germany.