“The wounds of change”

The right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is becoming an outlet for the anger of former lignite workers that lost their jobs when East German power plants and open-pit mines were shut down after German reunification in 1990, writes Stefan Locke in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Many former workers are now dealing with reduced pension payments due to political decisions made in the 1990s and might choose to vote for the AfD. Contrary to West German mining, which underwent decades-long transition solutions, former East German miners were hit by a “kind of turbo capitalism of the post-reunification period”, according to Petra Köpping, state minister for equality and integration in the federal state of Saxony.

For background read the CLEW dossier The energy transition's effect on jobs and business.