Alternative for Germany

Alternative for Germany (AfD), far right-wing German political party founded in 2013. Established during the rise of Euroskepticism in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis, the party has since adopted a platform based on German nationalism and Islamophobia.

Foundation and platform

In the 2010s some German conservatives began voicing dissatisfaction that under Angela Merkel’s chancellorship, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had become too moderate. Indeed, Merkel’s reputation for pragmatic compromise was the stuff of legend within the upper echelons of German politics, and three of her four governments would be grand coalitions with the left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD). In the spring of 2013 several members of Merkel’s bloc were among the founders of AfD. Intended to give voice to Euroskeptics who advocated for disengagement from the European Union (EU)—in stark contrast to Merkel’s championing of greater European integration—AfD protested the euro as the EU’s sole currency and rejected bailouts of EU member countries in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis. When Merkel proposed supporting a bailout for Greece in 2015, 60 of her fellow conservatives voted against her.

In 2015 AfD’s priorities shifted. Even as a record number of migrants—more than one million—entered Germany, Merkel maintained that the country’s borders would remain open in cases of humanitarian emergency, welcoming refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. AfD characterized such immigration as an invasion of foreigners that it was staunchly against, allowing the party to capitalize on rising populist and xenophobic attitudes in Europe. The party’s rhetoric also became explicitly anti-Muslim, as many migrants from Syria practiced Islam. In 2016 AfD called for a ban on “Islamic symbols of power” in Germany, which included minarets, the public call to Islamic worship, and full-body veils. Though many criticized AfD’s stances as racist and Islamophobic, in the 2017 general elections it received enough votes to form a bloc in the federal parliament. The conservative alliance between the CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU) lost 65 seats from 2013, its worst showing in nearly seven decades. By 2024 the AfD had begun to rival the mainstream CDU-CSU and SPD in terms of popular support, but its political power remained limited due to other parties refusing to form coalitions with it.

AfD’s anti-immigration platform consists of the following:

• Stop government spending on refugees
• “Negative immigration”: Refugees in Germany are returned to their home countries
• Remove the constitutional right of foreigners to seek asylum in Germany
• Restrict the influence of Islam in Germany

Nationalism and scandals

In a country wary of nationalism because of its association with Nazism and Adolf Hitler, AfD is unapologetically pro-German. “Our party program is the road to a different Germany,” AfD co-leader Jörg Meuthen said in 2016. Another party leader, Alexander Gauland, has built on the nationalist language of former U.S. president Donald Trump: “It’s not always America First. Sometimes it’s Germany First.” At its election party in 2017 AfD members publicly sang the German national anthem, a relatively rare sight in modern Germany. These displays, alongside AfD’s xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric, have made other Germans wary. The Central Council of Jews in Germany, for example, describes AfD as an “extremist party” that “embodies Nazi ideals,” charges AfD has denied.

In 2024 a series of scandals weakened AfD’s political influence. In April the assistant to an AfD representative in parliament was accused of spying for China’s Ministry of State Security. That same month, lead AfD candidate Maximilian Krah was found to have received secret payments from Russia and China. Another AfD candidate, Petr Bystron, was alleged to have received €20,000 to spread pro-Russian propaganda. In May Krah’s public statements minimizing the crimes of the Nazi SS caused the European Union Parliament’s far-right Identity and Democracy Group to oust AfD from its coalition.