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Mynamesnotrick's avatar

Also, when estimating the degree of "Slavicness" of East Germans by comparing them with Czechs it's important to keep in mind that the latter are far more Western-European like genetically compared to other Slavic peoples to the prehistorical and historical population history of the Czech lands. The genetic distance between East Germans and Poles would be considerably larger.

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Mynamesnotrick's avatar

AfD electoral success entirely overlaps with the political borders of the former East German state, suggesting its overperformance there is caused by different 20th century sociopolitical experiences and their aftereffects rather than early medieval population history. This can simply be tested by looking at a) parts of former East Germany which didn't have a Slavic population in the early Middle Ages (Western Thuringia, Western Saxony-Anhalt) - AfD does just as as well there as in the rest of East Germany b) parts of West Germany where Slavs did live in the past (East Holstein, Wendland in Lower Saxony, parts of Bavaria along the Czech border) - no particular AfD overperformance there.

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Charles Small's avatar

States tend to be formed along genetic lines in the first place. If you superimpose a genetic map over most recent wars, you'll see the conflicts tend to be between clusters over territories inhabited by clusters (ISIS, Ukraine etc.)

I'd be interested in more genetic data for a deeper analysis of German voting patterns, as the Global25 dataset only had a general East German entry. Weimar Republic elections were broadly along genetic lines, with Bavarians, East Germans, West Germans, Hamburgers, Kashubians/Pomeranians and Silesians voting differently.

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Coel Hellier's avatar

The biggest effect in how Scotland votes is about geography: densely populated lowland areas verses sparsely populated rural and highland areas.

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Mirakulous's avatar

Dug too far back to attribute AfD support in Eastern Germany. Being part of a separate country with a different political reality and interests for 45 years is sufficient to explain the phenomenon, without going centuries back.

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Charles Small's avatar

Before then, voting was broadly along genetic lines. The Bavarians, East Germans, West Germans, Hamburgers, Kashubians/Pomeranians and Silesians voted differently during the Weimar Republic for example.

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