To be to be seen by the mainstream of dermont and Mainstream Media to just be part of germany and be seen as like part of it and not the. Were sort of cast off fly over country but i just want to ask one thing about a point that is often asserted in connection with Political Attitudes and support for the f. T. Namely the idea that it reflects the communist area era socialization of order germans and even a kind of nostalgia for an easier time do you think thats true yeah definitely and i also think that germans werent good democrats in the fiftys they werent good democrats in the sixtys they had the economic wonder thats the tough one a and thats how that went on until in the seventys and so thats how they became democrats of because the u. S. Forced it upon them and then they had a good good experience with demarc democracy so its stuck sort of you know to put it in a nutshell but and that didnt and that didnt happen in eastern germany obviously they got all this money they got all this restructuring of infrastructure of of the streets and so forth but they didnt have the experience and they did they were the creators of this well they won whether well yeah but but i think that thats part of the problem were going to be as the phrase they never want to let me just make the cut here because we do have a little report that will allow us to dig a bit deeper on the economic aspects of unification and perhaps many remember during the Election Campaign that directly followed the fall of the berlin wall then chancellor helmut kohl promised east germans that they would see their region blossom now unemployment has fallen dramatically since the ninetys wages and salaries are rising and many of the region cities are booming yet ongoing dissatisfaction very much is driving support for right wing populism. November 9th 1989 the berlin wall comes down and the iron curtain current. Barely 11 months later germany is reunified. But to flourish in landscapes the leaders promised havent materialized instead eastern german industry has been languishing more than a 1000000 eastern germans are out of work. Western germany still dominates the economy not a single tax listed corporation is based in the east. Germany 15 the refugee crisis brings feelings of discontent in the east to critical matters. Increasingly migrants are seen as competitors for both jobs and social benefits. 2000000000 euros of investment are helping the east to catch up with the west but at around 70 percent unemployment is still above the average in the west are eastern germans 2nd class citizens. Without question to michelle or are eastern german 2nd class citizens the question that ma says when individuals go into a polling booth is whether they feel they are 2nd class citizens and saxony is the economically most successful eastern state and bats with the a if t. Is likely to come out potentially as the strongest policy thats where the c. D. U. Is now theyre about theres a margin of 56 percent said you was ahead theyre getting a bit more relaxed about it but what is a real race between going to michael c. Do you posse region on the on the far right if t. So many feel 2nd class citizens and its a generational question very much as well but if you look at a map of how much disposable income there is you can still quite clearly see where the wall stood between east and west germany and that is where this entire part of the. Country locks behind that also cant put down a payment for their kids in central then as many west germans do and this has an impact on how people feel in the east and its a very emotive Election Campaign thats for sure ellen im sure that many of our viewers and certainly all of us here will remember that famous bill clinton quote from one of his own Election Campaigns when he said its the economy stupid meaning it always comes down to the pocketbook now heres another paradox in surveys is chairman to express levels of personal economic satisfaction pretty much comparable with those in the west so whats going on here is this 2nd class feeling about something other than economics you know its the economy stupid is a stupid phrase and should have known that. People vote but lets not go into that. Its the demography stupid look during before the war went up in 161 the educated people the doctors the University Professors engineers they all left the country with their potential offspring then between 61 and the wall coming down 18 and anyone who was courageous enough to foot Strong Enough about democracy to leave chanced it since 989 people have seen chances in the west and gone there you have a brain drain a drain of people who feel for democracy with the civic spirit courage and whats left quite frankly they may be 1st class citizens as far as their rights a concern but no yes they are a negative selection of the german population lets face it the best stupider than the us and thats why more of them are voting for stupid policies so i dont i dont think thats true and i also know im going to be living there in the past few years theyve actually been migration back to eastern germany and at that. Growing well yes because well because they need people dont they who are not so stupid we have also been there not allowing immigration in regarding this huge influx of people with the get up and go spirit from syria from africa through this and then we dont want them because that they dont they want to stew in their own juice and they feel happy like that theyre like little englanders theyre like the Trump Supporters the people who are a negative selection thats going to have to be a demographic solution to this because thank goodness. Some young people are going back to these and maybe they have. A better view of things let me just let me just ask you this certainly there has been massive deep population in some areas of the east and a number of surveys show a correlation between support for the far right and areas where do population has occurred and that is not confined to germany alone were seeing a similar phenomenon in the u. S. And other places where there is increasing support for the right wing but heres another paradox for me in precisely the same areas there is a great deal of resentment against migration when in fact those areas theoretically need immigration more than any other places in the country valerie how would you explain that im stumped i dont understand it either i and i also dont understand the inherent racism that that is privy to most of these places so i feel like i really dont understand that also because. The eastern german. Youd think a lot of them understand how the west helped eastern germany after the fall of the wall so maybe they could be more open to migration but that is clearly not the case i think its you know studies have shown that if you dont have migration youre more critical to it and eastern germany didnt have migration and that from the socialistic brother country with. Those where those were only a few and they were very much kept separate from the public so they werent even allowed to really interact so there was never any basis of sort of understanding of multiculturalism i think thats a big part michaud tell us a little bit about the role of the a. F. P. In connection with. Anti migration sentiment in fact its become an absolute signature issue for the a. F. P. Whats driving that well because its clearly resonated with voters on the opinion polls. Being an anti euro party it then took a turn to the right and now to the very far right in pots and it was almost vanishing from the political scene when 2015 came around what became known as the migration crisis in germany you can video follow that line quite easily and they foster and the if do you will admit so an individual conversations that is the issue that made the big migration that. Theyve toned down the rhetoric to a certain degree because they discovered the opportunity of saying we are the real people picking up on slogans of those protests in 1989 and they are giving people a voice who feel that they couldnt be openly against foreigners and they couldnt open the be racist and thats something where the public debate in germany has a take. The. So the f. T. Allan instrumental izing anti foreigner sentiment. For the sake of the issue itself or for the sake of political power and perhaps are so driving opposition to the socalled elite well youd have to ask them wouldnt you. I mean i know some people like francis alex and the garland who is almost a friend of mine hes not an inherent racist but he uses it right on the other hand whats his name. In your india he is a racist through and through so and garlands working with them together in the same party i mean. Look again people the found founder of the social Democratic Party said and to some it isnt is the socialism of the stupid guys and racism of all kinds is the socialism the stupid guys right its pointing down to other people who are even below me in social status and declaring war on them and this is stupid right and and so an apology which appeals to stupid sentiment and gets 20 percent obviously thinks this is what the if he thinks the 20 percent of the people in the east is stupid and if they get the Election Results then theyll be proved right but its up to these germans root for them wrong not up to us sitting here in the studio pontificating but what does that make Alexander Gulen and then he let me say enough already that makes him a horrible opportunistic. A person whos using that. To get his own back on the american whos never hes never by the way hes german there are those there are. Other true also theres a lot of innovation in the east i really dont want to let that stand the germans are more stupid than the western germans i dont think thats true of a high proportion of stupid people well there is the demography is different a lot of a lot of people who start chance of left their left thats what you said and and so there is there is the brain obviously and the ninetys were really hard and there were lots of nazis that werent addressed in the in the g. D. R. And so there are all these issues and theyre cumulating to what were now seeing let me just ask you this because were almost out of time and id like to at least briefly hear from all of you should the far right in fact make significant gains in the elections on sunday what do governments at both regional and federal level need to be doing to stop this trend and im going to have to us for the briefest of possible answers well they are a Democratic Party they need to be dbus to 5 by being seen what they are and that might see them in a Regional Government somewhere in the near future but they are no when the of being in power in Central Government i would just size parties not to change the rules to avoid them thats also part of democracy thank you own can i just agree certain that never happened but its a lot of time for valerie. And about 30 saying. Well i think i do think that its important that they dont think dont get in power even in fact here in front of books and i think that. The Democratic Party should have a little more faith in society and themselves and. I very much hope that were going to decline over the next couple of months and years thank you. Much taller than you for being with us today and thanks to you out there for tuning in to see yourself about. The atlantic