Change and Stagnation: The German Election and the Luddites

The German Election

We’ve seen our fair share of change in the month of February in the world of politics — most prominently, in the highly anticipated German elections, the results of which were unveiled on Monday, the 24th of February. But before we look at the polls, what were the stakes? As has made major headlines recently, one of the biggest contenders was the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party led by Alice Weidel, which promised to bring about mass immigrant deportations; along with that was Germany’s current ruling party, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which had in fact led to a collapse of the coalition government earlier; finally, the other most notable candidate was the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Friedrich Merz, who had criticised recent US intervention in Germany leading up to the election.

So… who won?

[Source: Die Bundeswahlleiterin]

With 28.6% of the preliminary votes came the CDU, with AfD coming in second at 20.8% and SPD at 16.4%. Merz has gone on to voice his plans for Germany, stating, “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.” It is important to note that the election results have also left AfD in a more powerful position than ever.

As a result of the 2025 German elections results, we can expect big changes to come from Germany, specifically in regards to concerns about security, both domestic and international — yet, some argue that this will further lead to the rapid growth of far-right ideology currently permeating throughout Europe (and by extent, the USA) as global tensions only continue to rise.

The Luddites

But what about those who fought vehemently against change? A poignant example of this can be traced back to over 200, to a group of people called the Luddites. While most people know Luddites as those who oppose technological progress, only few are familiar with their origins. 

The Luddites emerged in 1811 from British working families during a time of economic crisis and mass unemployment in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. In Nottingham, inside of a textile manufacturing centre, hoards of protesters who had been demanding more work and higher wages destroyed textile machinery. From the North of England to the South, more machinery was smashed in nightly occurrences, and fearing that this would only go on, soldiers were deployed to defend factories and Parliament passed a measure to make machine-breaking a capital offense. 

While Luddites, even decades after the initial protests, were seen as those in support of regression, in reality, as can be seen from the collection Writings of the Luddites, what most of them wanted in the first place was fair pay for fair work, and to not get replaced by machines. 

Modern Luddites still exist today in different shapes and forms. For example, in recent social media trends, people have begun more commonly using flip-phones when going out instead of bringing their smart-phones. In work spaces, those who have gotten fired and replaced by generative AI may share the same sentiment that the Luddites had. Those who have become tired of the seemingly endless amount of streaming services have taken to purchasing physical items of the media they love, such as DVDs or cassettes. 

So the next time you feel yourself getting disillusioned with technology, think of the Luddites. 

P.S. In case you were wondering where the word “Luddite” came from, it was named after a protester called Ned Ludd who, as it turns out, was completely fictional.