Germany – AfD party

The German-nationalist political party has prospered from the recent inability of other parties to be trusted on issues of national sovereignty.

‘Liberalism is the death of nations” — a famous line from an infamous book. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, the author, did not have American progressivism in mind. His critique was aimed at liberal democracy as a political regime. Moeller coined the term “Third Reich” in his 1923 book, where these words originate. He was not a National Socialist but part of the “conservative revolution,” a diverse group of writers in the Weimar Republic. Alongside the more radical Völkische Bewegung, an influential ethno-nationalist movement, the “conservative revolutionaries” shaped the social atmosphere that paved the way for National Socialism.

The interior minister of the eastern German state of Thuringia, social democrat (SPD) Georg Maier, is calling for an amendment to the state’s constitution to hinder—or prevent—right-wing anti-globalist party AfD from obtaining a high-ranking position in the state parliament.

Elections are to be held in three eastern states, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia next year, and AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) is on course to win in all three, possibly garnering a third of all votes, according to opinion polls.

The right-wing antiglobalist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is poised to secure its second mayoral position. Residents of Pirna—a town of 37,000 situated in Saxony—brushed off the state intelligence agency’s recent ‘extremist’ classification of the party and voted AfD candidate Tim Lochner into office.

After finishing first by a nearly ten-point margin in the town’s initial round of voting late last month, Lochner, a 53-year-old master carpenter—who isn’t a member of AfD, but ran on its ticket—again bested his opponents from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Voters in the second round of voting on Sunday, December 17th, securing 38.5% of the vote according to the final tally.

Polls should always be taken with a grain of salt, but the numbers coming out of Germany suggest that the biggest Right-wing wave since the end of the Second World War could be emerging. What is brewing across the country is no longer the usual ebb and flow of electoral politics, but instead the prelude to a coming revolt at the voting booth.

Popular support for the right-conservative Alternative for Germany (AfD) has, for the fourth time in the last few months, climbed to a new record high. Amid a deluge of problems facing the nation, including skyrocketing illegal immigration numbers, soaring prices, and a stagnant economy, the left-liberal political class in Germany has, so far, refused to address the concerns of working-class Germans. But even they are beginning to change their tune. 

With almost exactly a year to go until Germans head to the ballot boxes in Brandenburg to elect a new state parliament, the conservative, anti-globalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is, for the first time, the strongest political force, with nearly one in three voters supporting the party.

AfD’s surging popularity says more about the growing dissatisfaction with the political elite than about ‘extremism’ in Germany.

Rising support for right-wing AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) is not due to the ‘radicalisation’ of the country reported by most media outlets, but is a protest against the establishment’s unpopular policies, according to a new survey by the Allensbach Institut for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Participants in the poll were asked questions about various issues to determine how ‘radical’ their views were. The results show that only 2% of participants were deemed to be on the hard right of the political spectrum and another 2% on the extreme left. Of the respondents, 12% were considered to be strongly on the right, and 7% were strongly on the left. Everyone else had centrist views or was moderately on the right or left. 

AfD voters are rebelling against a failing economy

For decades, Germany was a beacon of centrist political stability. During her 16-year leadership, Angela Merkel led a succession of grand coalitions which neutralised the political extremes, and piloted her country through an era of steady economic growth.

Today, that political settlement has dissolved. Germany’s reliance on Russian gas has devastated its industrial economy, while the surface tranquillity of the Merkel era is a distant memory. Alternative für Deutschland, a far-Right populist party, has been the beneficiary of this chaos, surging in the polls to become the second-most popular party in Germany.

The head of one of Germany’s major Roman Catholic associations has called for banning members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) from lay positions within the Roman Catholic Church, arguing their conservative values are in contradiction to the faith.

Irme Stetter-Karp, President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), stated that she did not believe that members of the AfD and their values were compatible with Christianity, and called their recent surge in the polls “dangerous.”

The far-right party is now the country’s second most popular. There have been rumours it might be banned, but its politicians say Berlin just won’t listen to them on migration and eco issues

Over beer and schnitzels, members of the local branch of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party gathered one evening last week in the back room of a rustic inn in Waltershausen, on the edge of the Thuringian forest.

As they discussed their politics, considered radically right-wing by many in Germany, the walls behind were decorated with oil paintings of rural scenes and glass cases containing the dolls for which the picturesque little town was once famous.