Politics and Poverty “People like us will always remain on the sidelines”
Hardly anyone talks about poverty during the election campaign. What do people with little money think about politics and who will they vote for on Sunday? A visit to the food bank.
The people who go to the Berliner Tafel on this afternoon in mid-February can be recognized by their shopping trolleys. With them they climb the few steps to the distribution point in the Martin Luther Church in Neukölln. Ahmet has just come out, a backpack on his back, and lights a cigarette. When asked what he will vote for on Sunday, he looks briefly surprised. Then he answers quickly: "The Greens - because of Ukraine." He thinks again for a moment and then says: "In Neukölln I don't know yet, maybe SPD or Left."
Ahmet came from Turkey as a child and has lived in Germany for over 40 years. Like everyone else in this text, he only gives his first name. He is currently working in a €2 job . Because he can go to the food bank here, he saves ten euros a week. What is his view on politics and rising prices? He shrugs his shoulders.
It's just the economy, he says. The most important issues for him at the moment are Ukraine and the climate. That's why he would usually vote for the Greens or the SPD. He only voted for the CDU once, in the 90s, but he lost a bet. Too conservative, too bourgeois, says the mid-50-year-old.
People like Ahmet who don't have enough to buy food from the supermarket come to the Martin Luther Church: people receiving citizen's allowance and basic social security, BAföG recipients or people who receive housing benefit. Many refugees from Ukraine also take advantage of the offer.
Social security and participation are hardly an issue
There are 5.7 million citizens' allowance recipients in Germany alone, but you rarely hear or see them. While the main topics discussed in the federal election campaign are migration and internal security, issues such as social security and participation are hardly mentioned. And this despite the fact that consumer prices have risen by around 20 percentage points since 2020, according to the Federal Statistical Office. For comparison: an adult will receive 563 euros in citizens' allowance per month in 2024 and 2025.
"People like us will always remain completely on the fringes," says Zosia. With so little money, you simply cannot participate in life, the fear of not having enough money to eat at the end of the month hangs over everything like the sword of Damocles. Together with Marion, whom she met at the food bank, the 45-year-old is waiting for her letter to be called out. She herself wants to vote for the Left. But can they change the overall situation? Everyone is against each other and no one has a solution, says Zosia: "Too many men who cannot communicate with each other."
Marion, 62, doesn't want to say who she's voting for. But she doesn't believe that anyone actually has solutions for those affected by poverty. "They always say they want to increase the tax on the rich , they should just do it," she says aggressively. She still remembers how much it took her to come to the food bank for the first time, because of the shame. Especially because she had always worked - as a saleswoman, then as a carpenter, but she found the computer course difficult. Nevertheless, she knows that she is lucky. She has a network, a daughter, who can help out. "Other people don't have that."
"Fear becomes currency"
A person walks past. When asked who she is voting for, she stops for a moment: "The Left makes the most sense to me as a black person." She walks on. Then Michi and Miriam come in. Michi works in the nearby workshop for the disabled, his roommate Miriam most recently worked in security. Neither of them knows yet whether or who they will vote for, only that it is not going in the right direction. Something needs to be done about drugs and alcohol, and that there are so many homeless people because apartments are so expensive.
Hermann wants to vote on Sunday - for the Left. Because of the social aspects and because they are critical of warmongering, as he says. The high share of votes for the AfD, he believes, is only a symptom of a disease that goes much deeper. Fear is being used by the right as political currency. "We have to emancipate ourselves emotionally and intellectually from fear," believes Hermann. Otherwise politics will continue to be representative, but not democratic.
