“Brown-green voter seeking by the AfD”

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party wants to stop the German Energiewende, and at the same time promotes nature conservation, Susanne Götze writes for Süddeutsche Zeitung. She says this contradiction is “a systematic one that has tradition.” The German conservation movement that began in the late 19th century was "a conservative, partly reactionary movement against industrialisation, and closely bound to the term Heimatschutz," or “homeland protection” – a nationalist movement prominent under the Nazi regime – Nils Franke, environmental historian at Leipzig University told Götze. Beate Küpper, an expert on right-wing extremism, said that compared to the environmental movement's holistic approach, right-wing conservationists lacked “the global perspective” and an understanding of complexity, Götze writes.

Find the article in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheet Vote2017: German parties' energy & climate policy positions.