People's party
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Search complete. 8 mentions across 6 episodes found for "People's party".
Sep 11, 2026
Christopher CaldwellGUEST
This is an important part of our story.
Christopher CaldwellGUEST
The Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, who were the big, they were called People's Parties or Volksparteien after World War II.
Christopher CaldwellGUEST
And SPD,
R. R. RenoHOST
that was the, if you will, the non-communist left party.
Christopher CaldwellGUEST
This is an important part of our story.
Christopher CaldwellGUEST
The Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, who were the big, they were called People's Parties or Volksparteien after World War II.
Christopher CaldwellGUEST
And SPD,
Rusty RenoHOST
that was the, if you will, the non-communist left party.
John KampfnerGUEST
They are.
John KampfnerGUEST
And what matters for mainstream political parties, the old Volksparteien, the people's parties that established the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War, is that they begin to understand both the depth of the challenge that the AFD is posing now, both to the parties and to the whole system of liberal democracy and what they have to do about it.
Enda BradyHOST
Javier, to you, I read that Angela Merkel's former chief of staff, a man called Thomas de Maizière, said on German TV that many people in Germany now see the AFD as the party of hope.
Enda BradyHOST
How do you respond to that?
James ButlerHOST
It's had a number of SPD regional governments over the years, historically in coalition with the PDS, which is the predecessor of the left party today.
James ButlerHOST
So there is, I think, in the background, a story here about the long-term fortune of those Volksparteien, the historic mass parties of both left and right.
James ButlerHOST
And I wonder, I mean, the temptation for me is to say, oh, you know, basically the SPD loses its credibility after, say, the hearts packages of reform.
James ButlerHOST
So these sort of neoliberalizing wage reforms and never really recovers it.
NickHOST
It's become much more explicitly that post-Meckle.
NickHOST
Meyako was kind of like the easy exemplifier of like a cross-class relation that the CDU could exist with as like a true like Volkspartei.
CiaránHOST
Probably because like, as we said before, when we watched the I'm with Hercule documentary, one of the big things that documentary couldn't grasp and is probably the case is and was quite important to her she was East German and like I think with like in kind of the same way that like they're trying to do it with like Andy Burnham whatever his name is in the UK of like a man from the North they're like you can't understate that sometimes sometimes that does go a long way of like we can get someone in front of you who doesn't sound like Mr. Burns going back to that tweet can actually sound like a real person that is like yeah yeah yeah Yeah, of your class strategy, even though they're not.
CiaránHOST
God, what else? The AFD.
Alice WeidelSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
[clapping] Wir sind die neue Volkspartei.
Roberto VannacciSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
L'Italia agli italiani.
speaker_2UNKNOWN
[cheering]
James KanterHOST
Those are three radical right figures to watch.
James KanterHOST
Alice Weidel, the leader of the extremist Alternative for Germany Party.
James KanterHOST
She calls it the new Volkspartei, the People's Party, but coming from her...
Alice WeidelSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Volkspartei.
James KanterHOST
The term suggests an appeal to racial purity.