On October 8, federal state elections were held in both Bavaria and Hesse. What both elections show above all is a clear loss of confidence of the population in the current government. But also other things can be seen from this election result. In the following article, we will now take a closer look at the elections in Bavaria.

In terms of voter turnout, these elections were certainly a success for the bourgeoisie, as they managed to get more people to the ellection offices, with a turnout of 73.3 percent compared to 72.4 percent the previous year. Nonetheless, this election also demonstrates the declining trust in the major established parties, especially the ruling parties.

For the governing parties of the so-called traffic light coalition, this election was a clear defeat.  Each of the coalition parties had a drop in votes of at least over one percent.  The SPD, for example, with its result of 8.4 percent, suffered a loss of 1.3 percent of the electoral vote.  It is clear that the SPD's social democrats will probably sink into insignificance for the time being after the next big elections.
Who, on the other hand, is already disappearing into insignificance today is the FDP. At least regionally in Bavaria.  In the current elections, they lost as much as 2.1 percent of their voters. With 3.0 percent this year, compared to the 5.1 percent of the previous year, the FDP has also suffered a significant loss in the form of their votes.  In addition, however, they not only have a drop in votes, but since they fail with the current result at the five percent hurdle, they lose all their seats in the Bavarian state parliament.

The biggest frontrunner in the club of increasingly unpopular parties, however, is the Green Party. Although their result of 14.4 percent won them almost a quarter of Bavaria's electoral votes and put them in fourth place compared to the other parties, they cannot speak of success in view of these elections and the election results. At the same time, the Greens are also the party with the highest losses in their electorate.  In the 2018 federal state election, they received 17.6 percent of the votes cast. This year, the Greens lost 3.2 percent of the votes.

The significant loss of voters clearly shows the ever-increasing dissatisfaction of the population with the current government. The CSU, the leading party in Bavaria, is particularly able to use this circumstance for its own benefit. With 37.0 percent, they are the strongest party in Bavaria this year again.  Together with the fact that their political rivals in the government suffered a clear defeat, the CSU is now trying to portray itself as the supposed winner of the election. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the CSU is also struggling with falling votes. Although these are currently, with 0.2 percent loss of votes not so huge, as with the goverment parties, but also clearly show the trend that more and more loyal voters of many years also turn their backs on the CSU. This trend is particularly clear when compared with the past results of the Bavarian federal state elections. It is clear that the CSU will not be elected again with over 60 percent of the vote as in its golden years.

On the contrary, the real winners of the election are two other parties. The AFD and the Free Voters. The increase in votes for these parties expresses above all the discontent of the petty bourgeoisie and the working aristocracy, which are present in Bavaria in no small measure. Driven by the fear of slipping into the proletariat themselves in the course of the economic crisis, many are pinning their hopes on supposedly rebellious so-called "protest parties".

With their result of 15.8 percent, the Free Voters saw an increase of 4.2 percent. Despite the political scandal surrounding the so-called leaflet affair, the Free Voters under the chairmanship of Hubert Aiwanger have managed to emerge from this media scandal not only unscathed, but even stronger.  A central point for the success of the free voters in Bavaria is above all that public appear and the Rethorik of them and their leader.  Thus Aiwanger represents itself opposite the public again and again as representatives of the small man and as "anti-establishment" politician, who shows it to those there above times so correctly. In public appearances, he expresses himself accordingly in relatively popular terms. A well-known sentence of him, which went recently relatively broadly by the media was for example: "Now the point has been reached where the silent vast majority of this country must finally take back democracy and tell those in Berlin: You've got your asses handed to you up there." His party is particularly strong in rural regions, of which there are a lot in Bavaria. To this end, the Free Voters are also making various issues relevant to rural areas, such as mobility and healthcare in the countryside, to their campaign issue.  They present themselves publicly, so to speak, as representatives of the rural population who are forgotten by the rest of the parties. Also Aiwanger lives on a yard in Landshut and comes even from the agriculture, which it opposite the press also again and again. But as much as he acts up as a rebel and weathers against the "elites" in Munich, he is, without admitting this for quite some time already a part of these.

However, the AFD ultimately emerged from these elections as the party with the largest increase in votes.  With their result of 14.6 percent, they managed to record an increase of 4.4 percent of the vote.  This makes them the third strongest party in Bavaria behind the Free Voters. They manage to win their voters with massive chauvinism. Particularly on issues of asylum and refugee policy. Polls showed that this is a key issue that has led many AFD voters to place their crosses with this party. This circumstance was of course also favored by the general mood-mongering against refugees, which was ignited in recent months by the various parties. Especially in the big refugee discussion of the last months it becomes clear what is actually the main role of the AFD for German imperialism. In addition to the role of serving as a respirator for election statistics by moving parts of the masses for and against the AFD to the urns, another function of this party is to make reactionary positions acceptable, which are then taken up by other parties. This became very clear in the german refugee debate of the last few months, for example. The statements of the other parties on refugees and asylum law now differ more in form than in content from those of the AFD. In addition to upholding the typical German tradition of kicking down, the AFD also still manages to present itself as a "protest party" and as an alleged alternative to the other politicians. The other side of this, however, is that the more successful they are with this ploy, the more they will be able to assume political responsibility and show the masses how they actually dont differ from the rest of the parties.