Germany – AfD party

Six candidates of hated party die just before local elections In German state. Coincidence?

What is the likelihood that four candidates and two reserve candidates of the same political party, in the same region, would drop dead suddenly, within 13 days of each other—and just before local elections? It happened in North Rhine-Westphalia to Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidates on the September 14 ballot.

The four candidates were Ralph Lange, 66; Wolfgang Klinger, 71; Stefan Berendes, 59; and Wolfgang Seitz, also 59. All were running for local offices in the northwest German state, where voters will go to the polls in less than two weeks. German election officials have invalidated previous mail ballots due to the deaths.

In Cologne, a bizarre conspiracy of silence has settled. Only it’s not happening behind closed doors. All of the political parties involved in upcoming local elections, except the anti-immigration AfD, have openly agreed to avoid negative commentary on immigration during their campaigns.

Everyone, from the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to the far-Left Die Linke, has signed a “Fairness Agreement”, pledging not to talk about migrants in connection with “negative social developments such as unemployment or threats to domestic security”. This is likely to backfire spectacularly.

Nicole Blair, a 36-year-old YouTuber who once worked actively as a refugee helper, has explained why she now votes for Germany’s right-wing opposition party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

In 2015, during the height of the migration crisis, she spent time in Budapest, where she saw families camping without food or shelter.

Back in Germany, she threw herself into volunteer work—donating blankets, teaching children, arranging housing, and supporting newcomers. “I was totally passionate. I wanted to be a good person,” she told the Schwäbische Zeitung.

Activists and journalists will debate how to “fight the far right” in a government-backed cultural event.

At a time when Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has emerged as the most popular political force in the country, overtaking even the traditional parties that have governed for decades, Germany’s state apparatus—together with allied cultural and media organisations—is intensifying efforts to isolate and discredit it.

Germany’s main ruling party, the Christian Democratic CDU, has been dropping in the polls for the fourth consecutive week while the right-wing opposition AfD keeps rising, as the latest polling data shows them being neck and neck for the second time since the February election.

Germans reject a ban on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) by a majority of 52% to 27% in favour, according to a new representative survey published by the Allensbach Institute polling organization on Saturday.

The proportion opposed to a ban rises to 65% in the east of the country, according to the poll published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily newspaper, while it falls to 49% in the western states. The AfD enjoys widespread support in the formerly communist eastern states.

The pollsters found a range of reasons for rejecting a ban on the party, which is monitored as a far-right extremist organization by the domestic intelligence agencies.

The main reason was that respondents were familiar with AfD supporters, with 67% of west Germans and 88% of east Germans having AfD supporters in their circle of acquaintances. These acquaintances were seen in a much more sympathetic light than the party itself.

In other words Germans know who the real NAZIS are. h/t DS

Germany’s ruling Social Democrats have launched a push to ban the AfD, the country’s main opposition party and the second most popular in February’s election. The move follows a key resolution passed at the SPD’s party congress in Berlin on Sunday, which calls for setting up a legal task force to lay the groundwork for the ban.

What looks like just another attack on the so-called “far right” actually reveals a troubling trend in German politics: parts of the establishment are trying to rewrite the rules of democracy when a political party—backed by millions—dares to stand up to them.