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.
A German broadcaster has parted ways with a television presenter after the presenter allegedly made up a racist social media post earlier this month and attributed it to Frauke Petry, the former leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Maurice Gajda, host of the programme Explosiv, was suspended by broadcaster RTL this week after Ms. Petry accused him of fabricating a post from X, the tabloid Bild reports.
Elon Musk’s pledge to make Twitter (or “X”) a free-speech-friendly “digital town square” has been brought into question following reports that the social media account of a leading AfD politician and MEP has been shadowbanned.
With support for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party at an all-time high, calls to ban the party outright are growing louder among increasingly unpopular left-globalist politicians, along with their lackeys in Germany’s mainstream liberal press.
Speaking last week at the 75th anniversary of the Herrenchiemsee Convention—the first of which, in 1948, resulted in the initial draft of Germany’s post-war constitution—Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who occupies the largely ceremonial role as President of the Federal Republic, appeared to call for the AfD to be banned, saying: “We all have it in our hands to put those who despise our democracy in their place.”
Despite efforts to ban the party, support is surging
I was sitting in a beer garden in Fürstenwalde, southeast of Berlin, when the disturbing news alert about the deaths of six migrants in the Channel pinged up on my phone. I told my German friends about it and the small boats crisis in Britain, but didn’t get very far before one of them interrupted me: “You call that a crisis? It’s much worse here and our government doesn’t even pretend it cares!”
Andreas Jurca, running for the Bavarian state parliament for the patriotic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was brutally attacked on the weekend after Antifa doxxed a list of addresses of AfD politicians. Instead of arresting the criminals, the police also spread the “assassination list.”
This source suggests the perps may have been Antifa and or Migrants.
h/t Kiki9
The public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt has launched an investigation into an incident that saw members of the left-globalist Antifa issue veiled incitements to violence against Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) candidates standing for the upcoming Hessian state elections after publishing their private home addresses.
The action, which gave rise to widespread condemnation, also prompted—likely for reasons having to do with optics—sharp disapproval from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, headed by Nancy Faeser, who previously wrote for an Antifa magazine managed by an organization with links to far-left extremism.
Members of the youth branch of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), have recently begun conducting boxing lessons for members as the party has suffered from violent attacks by far-left extremists, including members of Antifa, in recent years.
Pic is of a hammer attack on an AfD member by Antifa a couple of years ago.
Germany’s far-right AfD on Sunday derided the EU as a “failed project” during a party conference in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.
A text adopted by hundreds of party delegates at the event said the bloc “completely failed” on issues such as climate and immigration. The party also said it does not support the Euro as a currency.
However, the text did not urge Germany to leave the EU. The AfD also did not call for the bloc to be dissolved entirely, as suggested by an earlier party draft in June.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has received another boost in the polls: If federal elections were held this week, the populist party would win 21% of the vote, putting it firmly in second place behind the center-right bloc of Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), which remain the strongest force at 27%, despite taking some small losses.
That is according to the latest edition of the representative “Deutschlandtrend” survey, for which pollster infratest reached out to 1,297 eligible voters via phone or email between July 31 and August 2.
