SPD's Kurt Beck sees parallels to Weimar Republic amid democratic concerns

Kurt Beck, a former Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader and onetime minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate, has voiced deep concern about the state of German democracy. He sees worrying parallels between current political developments and the Weimar Republic, Germany's first democracy, which ultimately collapsed in 1933.

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I see many parallels to the Weimar Republic in these days.

Beck expressed particular unease with the upcoming state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He stated that none of the established democratic parties have yet devised a strategy to counter the growing appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. "Many people are apparently ready to succumb to the temptation of this far-right party," Beck observed.

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Many current developments are reminiscent of this phase of the downfall of a democracy.

He advised the SPD, despite its own poor election results and poll numbers, to make the preservation of democracy a central theme. "We must discuss what our democracy is worth to us," Beck urged. He emphasized the need to address the danger of democracy being undermined from both the far-left and the far-right, though he considers the threat from the right to be "infinitely greater." Beck believes this debate offers the SPD an opportunity to engage more citizens.

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None of the democratic parties has yet found a recipe against the rise of the AfD, nor have I.