German far-right party AfD could see historic gains in this election. Here’s why – National

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

******* far-right party AfD could see historic gains in this election. Here’s why – National

Alternative for Germany appears to be headed for the strongest showing by a far-right party since World War II in 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 and is fielding 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 to lead the country.

Other parties 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and co-leader Alice Weidel has no realistic chance of taking the country’s top job. But AfD has become 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 and has helped shape 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

It has also become prominent outside Germany. The party has won enthusiastic support from 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, as well as attention from U.S. Vice President 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 and Hungarian Prime Minister 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

AfD first entered Germany’s national parliament eight years ago on the back of discontent with the arrival of large numbers of migrants in the mid-2010s, and curbing migration remains its signature theme. But the party has proven adept at harnessing discontent with other issues, too: Germany’s move away from fossil fuels, restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and support for Ukraine after 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 nearly three years ago.

Story continues below advertisement

The party was founded in 2013 and initially focused on opposition to bailouts for struggling countries in the eurozone debt crisis — measures that then-Chancellor 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 described as “without alternative.”

Over the years, AfD became more radical and repeatedly changed leaders. It was Merkel’s decision in 2015 to allow in large numbers of migrants that supercharged it as a political force. In the 2017 national election, it won 12.6% of the vote, to take seats in the ******* parliament for the first time.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Where does it stand now?

After returning to parliament in 2021 with reduced support of 10.3%, AfD picked up strength as Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left government bickered through a series of crises and 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Germany saw 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 a year ago triggered by a report that 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with ******* citizenship, and that AfD members were present.

Story continues below advertisement

But that didn’t do long-term poll damage to AfD. It 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 in the European Parliament election in June, and in September, the best-known figure on its hardest-right wing, Björn Höcke, secured the 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 in a state election in post-World War II Germany.

AfD went into Sunday’s election with renewed confidence and radical language, and polls put it in second place with about 20% support. Weidel, its first candidate for chancellor, has 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 as the party calls for large-scale deportations of people with no legal entitlement to be in Germany.

AfD calls for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Russia and opposes weapons deliveries to Ukraine. It wants Germany to reintroduce a national currency and for the European Union to become a ******* “association of European nations,” though it isn’t explicitly advocating leaving the 27-nation bloc.

Germany’s 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 has the party under observation for suspected right-wing extremism. The AfD’s branches in three eastern states are designated “proven right-wing extremist” groups. AfD strongly objects to those assessments and rejects any association with the Nazi past. Höcke has appealed 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 for knowingly using a Nazi slogan at a political event.

Trending Now

• This is the hidden content, please

  • Sign In
  • or
  • Sign Up

  /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

  ‘I feel disrespected’: Ontario town considers removing U.S. flags from its buildings

• This is the hidden content, please

  • Sign In
  • or
  • Sign Up

  /applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

  Trudeau, Trump talk Ukraine as allies fear U.S. withdrawal from war effort

AfD has support across Germany and is represented in all but two of the 16 state legislatures, but the party is strongest in the formerly ********** and less prosperous east.

Story continues below advertisement

It has a unique ability to seize on issues “that other parties don’t handle with this clarity, with this intensity, with this radicalism and this emotionality,” said Wolfgang Schroeder, a political science professor at the Berlin Social Science Center. “And on top of that, it’s an internet party and from the beginning used the emotionalizing power of the internet for its own communication — much better than all other ******* parties together.”

That has helped it to perform strongly among young voters in recent regional elections. The party portrays itself as an anti-establishment force at a time of low trust in politicians.

Schroeder described it as “something like an aircraft carrier for resentment and anger.”

More on Politics
More videos

Who are its friends abroad?

AfD’s rise has coincided with that of far-right parties in many 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, including Austria’s 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 and the National Rally in France, with which it has plenty of common ground. Orbán this month described Weidel as “ 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.”

However, it isn’t part of those parties’ 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 group in the European Parliament after some tensions before last year’s EU election. AfD was thrown out of one of the group’s predecessors after its leading candidate at the time, Maximilian Krah, said that not all Nazi SS men “were necessarily criminals.”

Musk, a tech billionaire and close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 that “only the AfD can save Germany.” He held 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 on X with Weidel and appeared live by video link at an AfD campaign rally.

Story continues below advertisement

At that rally, Weidel vowed to “make Germany great again” in an echo of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Nine days before the election, Vance met with Weidel after a speech to the Munich Security Conference in which he 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 about democracy and free speech and declared that “there’s no room for firewalls.” Mainstream ******* parties’ refusal to work with AfD is often referred to as the “firewall.”

&copy 2025 The Associated Press

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#******* #farright #party #AfD #historic #gains #election #Heres #National

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up