Ich hoffe, dass einige Polen oder Deutsche aus den Grenzregionen oder Leute mit Kenntnissen beider Länder mir helfen können, etwas zu erklären, das mich wirklich verwirrt.
Wenn man sich Wahlkarten anschaut, scheint es entlang der deutsch-polnischen Grenze, insbesondere im Nordosten und rund um Sachsen, einen sehr starken politischen Kontrast zu geben.
Zum Beispiel:
- Stettin und die weitere Region Westpommern (Zachodniopomorskie) unterstützen konsequent die Bürgerplattform/Bürgerkoalition (PO/KO). Bei den jüngsten Wahlen erreichte PO/KO regional etwa 40–45 %, und Stettin selbst gilt als Hochburg der liberalen/zentristischen Politik.
- Gleich hinter der Grenze, im ländlichen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in der Nähe von Stettin (Orte wie Vorpommern-Greifswald), erreicht die AfD in den Umfragen oft etwa 40 % oder mehr und belegt bei Kommunal- oder Bundestagswahlen manchmal den ersten Platz.
Weiter südlich ist der Kontrast noch deutlicher:
- Görlitz (Sachsen) ist eines der stärksten AfD-Gebiete in Deutschland, die Partei erhielt bei den jüngsten Bundestagswahlen etwa 45–50 %. Es ist auch der Wahlkreis von Tino Chrupalla, einem der prominentesten Führer der AfD.
- Direkt auf der anderen Seite des Flusses, in Zgorzelec und der umliegenden Region Niederschlesien, sieht das Wahlverhalten ganz anders aus. PO/KO tendiert dazu, konkurrenzfähig oder dominant zu sein, und die Region tendiert insgesamt eher zur Mitte-Links-/Liberalen als zu den Nationalisten im Sinne der deutschen AfD.
Was mich verwirrt, ist Folgendes:
- Berichten zufolge hat Görlitz eine große Bevölkerung mit polnischen Wurzeln (oft als sehr bedeutsam vor Ort bezeichnet).
- Tino Chrupalla selbst ist ethnischer Pole.
- Wirtschaftlich gesehen handelt es sich dabei allesamt um postindustrielle Grenzregionen mit Bevölkerungsrückgang, Abwanderung und niedrigeren Löhnen im Vergleich zum Landesdurchschnitt.
Doch politisch gehen die Ergebnisse stark auseinander.
Blick auf Karten:
- Fast ganz Ostdeutschland (mit Ausnahme von Berlin und Bayern, das konservativ, aber nicht von der AfD dominiert wird) ist mittlerweile stark AfD-orientiert.
- In Polen ist das Muster fast umgekehrt: Der Osten Polens wählt stark PiS, während der Westen, einschließlich der an Deutschland angrenzenden Gebiete, PO/KO wählt.
Meine eigentliche Frage lautet also:
Warum stimmen benachbarte Regionen mit ähnlicher Geschichte, Wirtschaft und Bevölkerungsstruktur so gegensätzlich ab?
Ich würde mich besonders über Einblicke von Polen freuen, die in der Nähe der deutschen Grenze leben, von Menschen aus Sachsen oder Mecklenburg-Vorpommern oder von allen, die beide politischen Kulturen verstehen.
Ich versuche nicht, etwas zu sagen, ich versuche wirklich zu verstehen, was hier vor sich geht.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Deutsche_Bundeswahl#/media/File:2025_Deutsche_Bundeswahl.svg
Why does eastern Germany vote so strongly right-wing, while neighbouring western Poland votes centre-left?
byu/Apprehensive-Income inpoland
Von Apprehensive-Income
16 Kommentare
The least economically successful part of Germany happens to be next to the most economically successful part of Poland.
On the German side, resentments and weird post-Soviet nostalgia fed by the russkies bots.
On the Polish side, growing prosperity with good work ethics and great appreciation for the things the EU brought.
I’m sure this is wide-brush only but in essence, it seems correct.
The economies are only technically similar. In the context of a country they are polar opposites. West being the wealthier in both countries, demographic structure may be also skewed similarly (I didn’t check) so east Germany more alike to east Poland.
PO isnt centre-left in any means
Answer is really simple. In Poland things are improving, country is developing etc… while in Eastern Germany everything is in decline, people are pessimistic etc.
Eastern Germany is kind of similar to Eastern Poland. It is Germany B (or C).
I can say from the ukrainian perspective. Western Ukraine is consistently Pro-European while Eastern and Southern were more towards russia (before the war). Looks like eastern regions are more susceptible to russian propaganda and bribery. Also eastern Germany was under Soviet unfluence after ww2.
https://preview.redd.it/7ib3boaupm9g1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e55c395d3a7ef18fda19292459ddcde3a66213b2
Poland was never divided like Germany.
Meanwhile in Germany, West kinda screwed over East, while in Poland people that led the change of the government would mostly get to rule, with Wałęsa being a president, those that led Peaceful Revolution in East Germany got largely sidelined by the western politicians pouring tons of resources into the last elections of East Germany, thus the reunification was extrelemy skewed towards the west.
Mieszkańcy z Ziem Odzyskanych dużo chętniej orientowali się na Niemcy i tam też najczęściej szukali oraz znajdowali pracę. Dlatego partia proniemiecka i prounijna znalazła tam swój matecznik. Im mniej tego całego folkloru płynącego z Wwy tym lepiej.
Dokładnie z tych samych powodów we wschodnich Noemczech wygrywa skrajna prawica.
If you are Polish you should check a video from Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) about this.
https://youtu.be/Uy8BIU4bVsw
I think the key is not that these regions are “objectively” similar, but how people interpret their situation.
In eastern Germany, many people feel a lost promise: after reunification, it was supposed to be “like the West,” but in daily life, it often isn’t. This creates frustration and a sense of grievance. The AfD populism taps into this effectively, offering a simple narrative: it’s not your fault, someone took something from you, and there are specific culprits (elites, Berlin, migrants, the EU). This gives a sense of meaning and control.
In western Poland, the context is different. The transformation and EU integration are more often perceived as a real advancement: open borders, investments, jobs, mobility. In this situation, narratives about threats or “stolen prosperity” are less convincing, so centrist and liberal parties perform better.
That’s why similar structural problems can lead to completely different political choices. Populism works where it resonates with strong emotions of loss, injustice, and lack of control, and these emotions have different roots on each side of the border.
Because they are extremely based 🗿
Eastern Germany is post-Soviet, generally poorer and votes conservative, with the exception of west Berlin, which wasn’t controlled by Soviets (or Berlin in general because it’s a big city).
Eastern Poland is post-Soviet, generally poorer and votes conservative, with the exception of Warsaw, which is a big city.
There you have it, obligatory r/widaczabory, is this post intentionally dense?
EDIT: Also, far-right political parties are gaining popularity in Poland, anyway. All truly left wing parties are about to either get fragmented right below the election threshold or completely gobbled up by KO, meanwhile maniacs like Braun are in the double digits now.
EDIT 2: Another important thing to look at — in both cases the far-right gains popularity in areas neighbouring countries the particular people view as lesser. In other words, the entry points for any „evil immigrants taking our jobs and money and women“. For Germany it’s Poland, for Poland it’s Belarus and Ukraine.
The unification of Germany was an economic botch at the cost of the eastern parts. Weak socio-economic regions are more open to anti-establishment resentments, which is exactly what the right wing parties tap into to gather support.
Polish center-left is de facto CDU in Germany
> Why do neighbouring regions with similar histories, economies, and demographics end up voting in such opposite ways?
I don’t think these areas are as similar as you make them, not after the ethnic cleansing of the Germans and only nominally brotherly communist dictatorships. At the same time, I don’t think that the German far right is that far off from the Polish center. If we ignore this Mitteldeutschland shit and the economy, the AfD is very conservative, anti-renewables,, anti-EU, pro-military, pro.-„traditional“ values, anti-abortion, anti-immigrant. Sounds familiar?
And the East-West dived of Germany goes at least as far back a the Roman times. In General the Western parts had always been more populated, more developed, more advanced. For Poland the pattern is rather similar.
Because for each of those, it is not the neighbouring area in the adjacent country that forms the reference for political decisions, but the rest of THEIR country is.
These regions aren’t really similar despite bordering each other. In the eastern Germany people have lived there for many generations, many centuries. Meanwhile in the western Poland people are transplants who settled there only in 1945 when this lands became Polish. They are quite rootless and it shows constantly in many polls, many categories. They are less religious, which of course wasn’t caused by some philosophical insight, but by policy of communists. Such policy was much less succesful in the east, where people had strong roots and their parish continously has existed for centuries, while in the west it was created only after 1945 and communists could much easier make it difficult to operate such parish. They are also less conservative in many other categories and this is caused by their lack of deep roots in the region. What to conserve when you have only 80 years of regional tradition?
This is not the only difference of course, but I think that it is a crucial one.