Needing the far left as a foil
For the AfD, the clearest political foil is the Left, a far-left party that surged in popularity among young voters ahead of February’s national election. AfD leaders see that party’s rise as weakening center-left parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which governs in coalition with Merz’s conservatives. The far-left’s strength will force center-left parties to pivot further left, goes the thinking, making centrist alliances across the political spectrum more difficult.
“The separation from the radical left, which holds positions that are unacceptable to the majority of Germans, makes it easier for the AfD to position itself as a bourgeois-conservative force,” reads the strategy paper. “The AfD and the Left form the two ideological poles of the social debate. As the antithesis to the ideological and woke left, the AfD can sharpen its bourgeois profile.”
Germany’s firewall blocking far-right parties from power has been far stronger than in other European countries on account of the country’s Nazi past. But the AfD’s rise has increasingly tested the firewall — and cracks have emerged, particularly in local government across eastern Germany, where centrists have cooperated with the party. Merz’s move last January to accept AfD support for passing tough migration legislation led to fears the firewall was about to fall, unleashing a fierce debate that struck at the core of the country’s postwar identity.
Afd’s strategy appears to follow Trump, who often depicts center-left opponents as “radical left lunatics.” | Ralf Hirschberger/AFP via Getty Images
Though the firewall remained intact — albeit damaged — the AfD wants to make it increasingly tough on Merz and other conservatives to maintain it. The AfD “will launch proposals and initiatives that will meet with a high level of approval” of center-right voters, especially those disappointed with Merz’s coalition with the SPD, according to the strategy paper.
The aim, at first, is not necessarily to win all those voters, but to make the firewall increasingly unpopular among them. This, in turn, would force conservative leaders to drop their opposition to governing in coalition with the AfD.
At the same time, the AfD strategy paper says the party will try to win new support within some of the voting blocs where it is weakest, including among women, older voters, academics and people living in cities.
“These groups are not homogeneous and cannot be addressed uniformly,” reads the paper. In order to “win them over to the AfD, we need a socio-demographic microanalysis of these groups. We need to identify subgroups to which we can build a bridge.”