{"id":925,"date":"2026-09-14T15:27:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T13:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/2026\/09\/14\/reform-freeze-vs-reform-turbo-what-will-actually-curb-the-afd-surge-now\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T09:28:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:28:30","slug":"reform-freeze-vs-reform-turbo-what-will-actually-curb-the-afd-surge-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/2026\/09\/14\/reform-freeze-vs-reform-turbo-what-will-actually-curb-the-afd-surge-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform freeze vs reform turbo \u2014 what will actually curb the AfD surge now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yet experience in this case speaks quite clearly against the idea that \u201cpainful\u201d reforms help<\/strong>. As our Reality Check<\/u><\/strong><\/a> shows on the basis of the current state of research, people are more likely to vote for populists whenever they are affected by cuts and restrictions that are more or less poorly justified\u2014especially if they are already suffering from the consequences of economic ruptures<\/strong>. That was the case with Brexit. And the combination maps the situation in Saxony-Anhalt<\/strong> quite clearly: no other federal state is so deeply marked by upheaval. Add to that the incessant drumbeat of cutting and restricting for more than a year now. Not everyone understands why they are supposed to tighten their belts (even further) now. No wonder<\/strong>, really, that this is precisely where the AfD is seeing the biggest gains. <\/p>\n\n

What to do?<\/strong> That does not mean calling for an immediate halt to all reforms<\/strong>. It is just reckless, on the basis of what we know, to blithely demand still more reform now\u2014as Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing does\u2014when some reforms quite obviously contribute to destabilising the republic even further in the end. Then it is essential to factor in such a socio-political risk<\/strong>, instead of arguing in a more or less shaky, narrowly economic way.<\/strong> It is then worth taking a much closer look at what a reform actually delivers and how urgent it really is right now<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

In short: every reform should be checked in advance<\/strong> to see whether it contributes (even more) to the politically dangerous, escalating public resentment<\/strong>\u2014and whether that is proportionate to the potentially hoped-for positive effects.<\/p>\n\n

It created enormous resentment among enormous numbers of Merz-style hard-working people to want sick notes<\/strong> from day one\u2014without even remotely promising a fraction of a percentage point of economic growth. Something similar applies to pensions. Sure, adjustments are needed here. But: is it ultimately helpful to want to abolish the pension at 63<\/strong>\u2014which tends to have a negative effect and angers many who have worked for a long time\u2014instead of creating positive incentives for people to work longer voluntarily<\/strong>, if they can? <\/p>\n\n

Systematically checking everything the government is planning for its anger-amplifying potential<\/strong> could help avoid further fuelling the populists\u2019 upward trend. So could a much more forceful push against inflation spikes<\/strong>, which also clearly increase resentment\u2014even if that does not align, in terms of regulatory policy, with the pure doctrine. Here, too, trade-offs are required. <\/p>\n\n

That still is not the full answer. The phenomenon of populists and authoritarians<\/strong> runs too deep\u2014for beyond Germany\u2019s borders. But it would be a start. <\/p>\n\n

About all of this\u2014the consequences of inflation\u2014and the search that has begun for the deeper causes<\/strong>and answers<\/strong>, Martin Kaelble<\/strong> and I talk in the second episode of our new podcast<\/strong>, New Economy Sounds<\/strong>. Available now on the usual channels\u2014for example here<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Picture credit: (c) Niklas Treppner\/dpa <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Saxony-Anhalt, nearly every second voter backed the AfD. Nationwide, the far-right party is ahead of all the others. Since then, some have been demanding that the government respond by pushing through even more reforms. Others recommend the opposite. Nothing could more frighteningly reflect how clueless much of what has been heard as a reaction across the rest of the country has sounded since. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"artikel-autor":[25],"class_list":["post-925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","artikel-autor-forum-new-economy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":926,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions\/926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925"},{"taxonomy":"artikel-autor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum-new-economy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artikel-autor?post=925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}