Alternative for Germany

Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; German pronunciation: [aːʔɛfˈdeː] ⓘ) operates as a right-wing populist political party in Germany. AfD is renowned for its Euroscepticism and its opposition to immigration to Germany. Positioned as a right-wing party, AfD typically aligns itself with the radical right, a subset of the far-right, within the family of European political parties that do not oppose democracy.

Gauland, Bernd Lucke, and former members of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) founded AfD in April 2013 to counter the Eurozone policies, presenting it as a right-wing and moderately Eurosceptic alternative to the center-right but pro-European CDU. Initially portraying itself as an economic liberal movement, Alternative for Germany evolved under successive leaderships, incorporating opposition to immigration, Islam, and the European Union. Since 2015, AfD’s ideology has been characterized by anti-Islam, anti-immigration, German nationalism, national conservatism, and Euroscepticism. It is the sole party represented in the Bundestag with environmental and climate policies based on denying human-caused climate change.

Alternative-for-Germany missed the 5%

During the 2013 German federal election, AfD narrowly missed the 5% electoral threshold for Bundestag representation. However, the party secured seven seats in the 2014 European Parliament election in Germany as a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). By October 2017, AfD gained representation in 14 of the 16 German state parliaments. In the 2017 German federal election, the party won 94 seats, becoming the third-largest party in the country and the largest opposition party, with co-vice chairman Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel as lead candidates. Nevertheless, in the 2021 German federal election, AfD dropped to being the fifth-largest party.

Alternative-for-Germany is on the march to the top

Various state associations and factions within Alternative for Germany have faced accusations of having links to far-right nationalist and proscribed movements, including PEGIDA, the Neue Rechte, and the Identitarian movement. They have also been accused of employing historical revisionism and xenophobic rhetoric. Since 2018, these associations have been under observation by various state offices for the protection of the constitution. AfD’s leadership, while denying accusations of racism, has been internally divided on whether to endorse such groups. In January 2022, Jörg Meuthen resigned from his party chairmanship and left AfD, acknowledging that the party had shifted significantly to the right with totalitarian traits and, in large parts, no longer adhered to the liberal democratic basic order.