Nearly two-thirds of Germans do not believe in the future success of the new left-wing political movement "Aufstehen" (Stand up), according to a poll. Sixty-two per cent of respondents to a poll conducted by Civey said the cross-party leftist alliance will not survive in the country's political landscape. Less than a fifth (19.8 per cent) of the 5,000 respondents to the survey, published by news website t-online.de, said they believed Aufstehen has a chance of establishing itself as a political force.Speaking at the launch of a new left-wing political movement in Berlin, "Aufstehen," German politician Sahra Wagenknecht of the hard-left Die Linke party said the people of Germany "no longer feel represented by those in power," as reported by dpa. She also said that Germany is suffering from a "crisis of democracy." "In a country where, despite economic growth, 40 per cent of residents have less net income than 20 years ago, democracy is no longer working," Wagenknecht added.
The movement's declared goal is to counter the "neoliberal policies" of Chancellor Angela Merkel's centrist coalition government and fight for secure jobs and pensions, environmental protection, and "a true democracy not ruled by banks, corporations and lobbyists." Its founders hope to energize and unite in a grassroots movement followers of Germany's three leftist parties, but also win back disenchanted working-class voters who have drifted to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The idea of a German cross-party leftist alliance has repeatedly come up and been dismissed, in large part because of Die Linke's uncompromising hard-left positions, such as wanting to abolish NATO. This has prevented a so-called "red-red-green" coalition government even in years when the three parties had a collective majority of parliamentary seats. The launch of a populist left-wing movement came amid a wave of violent protests by the far-right in the German city of Chemnitz. Nine people were injured Saturday on the sidelines of opposing demonstrations by the far-right and the left in the German city of Chemnitz, which was hit by anti-migrant protests last week. Chemnitz has been in the spotlight after violent xenophobic protests erupted over the fatal stabbing of a German man, allegedly by a Syrian and an Iraqi last Sunday. The tension in the air reflected the polarization over Germany's ongoing effort to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants seeking jobs since 2015.
The right blames Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan for multiple problems. Some far-right supporters argued before the killing in Chemnitz that migrants are responsible for an increase in serious crimes, especially attacks on women.