{"id":216,"date":"2026-03-30T07:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/216\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T07:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:02:36","slug":"alternative-for-germany-afd-beliefs-platform-election-results-scandals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/216\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative for Germany (AfD) | Beliefs, Platform, Election Results, & Scandals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tTable of Contents<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTable of Contents<\/p>\n

Ask Anything<\/p>\n

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

Foundation and platform <\/p>\n

In the 2010s some German conservatives<\/a> began voicing dissatisfaction that under Angela Merkel<\/a>\u2019s chancellorship, the center-right Christian Democratic Union<\/a> (CDU) had become too moderate. Indeed, Merkel\u2019s reputation for pragmatic<\/a> compromise was the stuff of legend<\/a> within the upper echelons of German politics, and three of her four governments would be grand coalitions with the left-leaning Social Democratic Party<\/a> (SPD). In the spring of 2013 several members of Merkel\u2019s bloc were among the founders of AfD. Intended to give voice to Euroskeptics who advocated for disengagement from the European Union<\/a> (EU)\u2014in stark contrast to Merkel\u2019s championing of greater European integration\u2014AfD protested the euro<\/a> as the EU\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

In 2015 AfD\u2019s priorities shifted. Even as a record number of migrants\u2014more than one million\u2014entered Germany<\/a>, Merkel maintained that the country\u2019s 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<\/a> and xenophobic attitudes in Europe. The party\u2019s rhetoric<\/a> also became explicitly anti-Muslim, as many migrants from Syria practiced Islam. In 2016 AfD called for a ban on \u201cIslamic symbols of power\u201d in Germany, which included minarets, the public call to Islamic worship<\/a>, and full-body veils. Though many criticized AfD\u2019s stances as racist and Islamophobic, in the 2017 general elections it received enough votes to form a bloc in the federal parliament. The conservative<\/a> alliance between the CDU and Christian Social Union<\/a> (CSU) lost 65 seats from 2013, its worst showing in nearly seven decades.<\/p>\n

By 2024 the AfD had begun to rival the CDU-CSU and SPD in opinion polls, but its political power remained limited due to other parties refusing to form coalitions with it. Even after the AfD finished second in the February 2025 snap general election, the mainstream parties maintained the post-World War II Brandmauer (\u201cfirewall\u201d) that prohibited cooperation with parties deemed to be extremist. Support for the AfD remained overwhelmingly concentrated in the states of the former East Germany<\/a>, and in that area, it won more than one-third of the vote.<\/p>\n

AfD\u2019s anti-immigration platform consists of the following:<\/p>\n

Stop government spending on refugees<\/p>\n

\u201cNegative immigration\u201d: Refugees in Germany are returned to their home countries<\/p>\n

Restrict the influence of Islam in Germany<\/p>\n

Nationalism and scandals <\/p>\n

In a country wary of nationalism<\/a> because of its association with Nazism<\/a> and Adolf Hitler<\/a>, AfD is unapologetically pro-German. \u201cOur party program is the road to a different Germany,\u201d AfD co-leader J\u00f6rg Meuthen said in 2016. Another party leader, Alexander Gauland, has built on the nationalist language of former U.S. president Donald Trump<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s not always America First. Sometimes it\u2019s Germany First.\u201d At its election party in 2017 AfD members publicly sang the German national anthem<\/a>, a relatively rare sight in modern Germany. These displays, alongside AfD\u2019s xenophobic and Islamophobic rhetoric, have made other Germans wary. The Central Council of Jews in Germany, for example, describes AfD as an \u201cextremist party\u201d that \u201cembodies Nazi ideals,\u201d charges AfD has denied.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGerman:
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlternative f\u00fcr Deutschland<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Show\u00a0more)<\/p>\n

In 2024 a series of scandals weakened AfD\u2019s political influence. In April the assistant to an AfD representative in parliament was accused of spying for China\u2019s 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<\/a> to have received \u20ac20,000 to spread pro-Russian propaganda<\/a>. In May Krah\u2019s public statements minimizing the crimes of the Nazi SS<\/a> caused the European Union Parliament<\/a>\u2019s far-right Identity and Democracy<\/a> Group to oust AfD from its coalition.<\/p>\n

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