if you're driving through East German cities you know why they're voting populist right wing parties. there's no work, poverty and half of the houses are empty because a lot of the people already left.
That's half the explanation.
The economic and social decline makes people susceptible to populists.
But the other half is this:
They're not the only populists.
To vote for outright, obvious Neo-Nazis you also have to ok with Neo-Nazis.
Yeah, but that doesn't explain it all. GΓΆrlitz for example is the county with the highest number of votes for the AfD. But the county is doing really well, there's a big Siemens plant there.