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In beautiful historic Potsdam on election day, warm rays of sun pirouette across the roofs and walls of the majestic buildings once home to Prussian royalty.<\/p>\n
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But in the sunshine, shadows of a far-right past emerge.<\/p>\n
This is the same city where Germany was divided by the allies after the Second World War. Nearly 80 years later, division is still the theme of the day.<\/p>\n
Traces of unrest are everywhere.<\/p>\n
Slogans condemning the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) are plastered on stickers on the rail of a pedestrian bridge and scribbled in chalk on a bike path.<\/p>\n
Red paint is splashed over AfD election posters. The message from leftist activists is clear: we don\u2019t want you here.<\/p>\n
As voters head to the polls for the Brandenburg state elections, a swelling protest against AfD greeted train users at the Potsdam Hauptbahnhof.<\/p>\n
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The rallies were organized by the Geradedenke Kollektiv, a coalition of self-described leftist groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst nazis\u201d, \u201cNo room for the AfD\u201d and \u201cF*ck the AfD\u201d were some of the popular slogans for posters, flags and signs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not welcome here,\u201d clearly stated Christian Mast, one of the organizers with Geradedenke Kollektiv, whose tagline is \u201ca pro-science, anti-populism, anti-right wing, anti-conspiracy theories collective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mast says the AfD is a populist party that aims to deny the rights of Germans and rewind the clock on years of progressive policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AfD is presenting an image or an idea of a society that is coming straight from 50, 60 years ago. They stand for values like traditional marriages, that there are only two genders and denying the whole existence of queer people,\u201d Mast explained.<\/p>\n
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While that idea of society doesn\u2019t sit well with Mast and those protesting, one in five Germans sympathize with the AfD and its policies, according to the Pew Research centre, a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Historian and journalist Katja Hoyer explains the AfD\u2019s appeal in part because it\u2019s filling a political void.<\/p>\n
Hoyer is the author of Beyond the Wall, a history book about life in socialist East Germany, where she grew up.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder Angela Merkel the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) moved so far into the middle, maybe even centre-left that it left a huge vacuum on the right hand side of the political spectrum and so, if people had concerns or were sort of conservative on the social sense, they often felt like they had nowhere to go with that,\u201d Hoyer explained.<\/p>\n
Hoyer adds many Germans also resented Merkel\u2019s open border migration policy that welcomed over 1 million refugees fleeing Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan in 2015.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe will manage this,\u201d Merkel famously proclaimed at the time.<\/p>\n
AfD supporters such as Corinna Carriere think the country in fact, didn\u2019t manage the refugee crisis appropriately and Germans like her are now paying for it.<\/p>\n
Born and raised near Stuttgart, Carriere is the daughter of Italian immigrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came to (Germany) to work,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a lot of immigrants who come here for the money and they don\u2019t want to work anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
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