For the history books, the reunification of Germany it took place 31 years ago, on October 3, 1990, when the territories of German Democratic Republic, for decades under the influence of the Soviet Union, were incorporated into the then West Germany. The proceeding was completed later with the constitution of five new federal states (Lander) in the eastern territories: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
But beyond the symbolic dates and administrative changes, German reunification was in reality a long and complex process, which posed a series of questions still largely unresolved.
Despite the efforts made under the leadership of three chancellors – Kohl, Schröder and Merkel – social differences (and above all wages) between the two parts of the country continue to be perceived heavily by the population, as demonstrated the outcome of the recent federal elections.
The vote was resolved with the victory of the social democrat SPD, which beat the Christian Democrat coalition CDU-CSU (sunk to an all time low) and is now in talks with Liberals e Verdi for the formation of a new government. It is already known that the times will be long: according to most forecasts, the executive will not see the light of day before Christmas.
However, if we analyze the vote taking into account the old internal border, we realize that West voters voted for i more traditional parties, while East there is a clear success of alternative for Germany.
The Eurosceptic and xenophobic far-right formation lost support at a national level, going from 12,6 to 10,3%, but at the same time took root in East Germany, establishing itself as the first party in Saxony and Thuringia, second in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and third in Saxony-Anhalt.
In the whole of the former GDR, AfD is the second political movement after the Social Democrats, with 19,1% of votes (against 24,2% for the SPD) which roughly confirms the result of 2017.
These numbers testify that – although the East has recovered a lot of ground since 1990 – the reunification celebrated 31 years ago is actually still to be completed.
