Back Alternative für Deutschland Afrikaans Alternative für Deutschland ALS Alternative für Deutschland AN البديل من أجل ألمانيا Arabic Alternativa p'Alemaña AST Almaniya üçün Alternativ Azerbaijani Alternative für Deutschland BAR Альтэрнатыва для Германіі Byelorussian Альтэрнатыва для Нямеччыны BE-X-OLD Алтернатива за Германия Bulgarian

Alternative for Germany

"AfD" redirects here. For other uses, see AFD (disambiguation).
See also: Politics of Germany

Alternative for Germany
Alternative für Deutschland
AbbreviationAfD
Co-leaders
Deputy co-leaders
Parliamentary leaders
  • Tino Chrupalla
  • Alice Weidel
Honorary chairmanAlexander Gauland
FoundersAlexander Gauland
Bernd Lucke
Konrad Adam
Founded6 February 2013; 11 years ago (2013-02-06)
Split fromChristian Democratic Union of Germany[1]
HeadquartersSchillstraße 9 10785 Berlin
Think tankDesiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung
Youth wingYoung Alternative for Germany
Membership (2023)Increase 34,000[2]
IdeologyRight-wing populism
Euroscepticism
Political positionFar-right[A]
European affiliationEurope of Sovereign Nations Party (since 2024)[nb 1]
European Parliament groupEurope of Sovereign
Nations (since 2024)[nb 2]
Colours  Light blue
Bundestag
77 / 736
State Parliaments
282 / 1,884
European Parliament
15 / 96
Website
afd.de
^ A: The AfD was not a radical right-wing party in its early phase, but moved to the populist radical right in 2015 with the replacement of its first leadership.[3]

Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD, German pronunciation: [aːʔɛfˈdeː] ⓘ) is a far-right[4] and right-wing populist[5][6] political party in Germany. The AfD is Eurosceptic,[7] and opposes immigration into Germany, especially Muslim immigration.[8] The name of the party reflects its resistance to (uncontested by mainstream parties) policies of Angela Merkel with her insistence on German: Alternativlosigkeit (lit. 'alternative-less-ness', a German version of "there is no alternative").[9] The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, has classified the party as a "suspected extremist" organisation.[10]

Established in April 2013, AfD narrowly missed the 5% electoral threshold to sit in the Bundestag during the 2013 German federal election. The party won seven seats in the 2014 European Parliament election in Germany as a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). After securing representation in 14 of the 16 German state parliaments by October 2017, AfD won 94 seats in the 2017 German federal election and became the third-largest party in the country, as well as the largest opposition party; its lead candidates were the co-vice chairman Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, the latter having served as the party group leader in the 19th Bundestag. In the 2021 federal election, AfD dropped to being the fifth-largest party.[11] Since 2023, polling shows AfD as the second most popular party.[12]

AfD was founded by Gauland, Bernd Lucke, and former members of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) to oppose the policies of the Eurozone as a right-wing and moderately Eurosceptic alternative to the centre-right but pro-European CDU. The party presented itself as an economically liberal,[13] Eurosceptic, and conservative movement in its early years.[14][15][16] AfD subsequently moved further to the right,[17] and expanded its policies under successive leaderships to include opposition to immigration,[18][19] Islam,[20] and the European Union.[21] Since 2015, AfD's ideology has been characterised by German nationalism,[22][23][24] Völkisch nationalism[25] and national conservatism,[26][27][28] with policy focus on opposing Islam,[29][30][31] opposing immigration,[32] welfare chauvinism,[25] Euroscepticism,[33] denial of human-caused global warming,[34][35] and supporting closer relations with Russia.[36]

Several state associations and other factions of AfD have been linked to or accused of harboring connections with far-right nationalist and proscribed movements, such as PEGIDA, the Neue Rechte, and the Identitarian movement,[37] and of employing historical revisionism,[38] as well as xenophobic rhetoric.[39][40][41] They have been observed by various state offices for the protection of the constitution since 2018.[42] AfD's leadership has denied that the party is racist and has been internally divided on whether to endorse such groups.[43] In January 2022, after a lost power struggle, party leader Jörg Meuthen resigned his party chairmanship with immediate effect and left the AfD, as he claimed he came to acknowledge that the party had developed very far to the right with totalitarian traits and in large parts was no longer based on the liberal democratic basic order.[44][45] Former party chairman and co-founder of the AfD, Bernd Lucke, had left the party in 2015 with the same remark.[46]

The party is the strongest in the areas of the former communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany), especially the states of Saxony and Thuringia, largely due to economic and integration issues that still continue to persist post-reunification,[47][48][49] in addition to the East German voters' perceived propensity for strongman rule.[50] In the 2021 federal elections, AfD fell from third to fifth place overall but made gains in the eastern states (the former East Germany).[11] In the former East Berlin it came in second after SPD with 20.5% of the vote, while in the west it came in fifth with 8.4% of the vote.

  1. ^ Lachmann, Günther (4 October 2012). "Euro-Politik: Enttäuschte CDU-Politiker gründen Wahlalternative". Die Welt (in German). Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference membership-2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Mudde, Cas (2016). "Introduction to the populist radical right". In Mudde, Cas (ed.). The Populist Radical Right: A Reader. Routledge. pp. 1–10. ISBN 978-1-315-51456-7.
  4. ^ Far-right:
  5. ^ * Lux, Thomas (June 2018). "Die AfD und die unteren Statuslagen. Eine Forschungsnotiz zu Holger Lengfelds Studie Die 'Alternative für Deutschland': eine Partei für Modernisierungsverlierer?". KZFSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. 70 (2): 255–273. doi:10.1007/s11577-018-0521-2. S2CID 149934029.
  6. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (September 2021). "Germany". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  7. ^ Arzheimer, Kai (January 2015). "The AfD: Finally a Successful Right-Wing Populist Eurosceptic Party for Germany?". West European Politics. 38 (3): 535–556. doi:10.1080/01402382.2015.1004230. S2CID 14613344. Archived from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021 – via Arzheimer's personal website.
  8. ^ Arzheimer, Kai; Berning, Carl C. (2019). "How the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and their voters veered to the radical right, 2013–2017". Electoral Studies. 60: 102040. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2019.04.004. S2CID 181403226.
  9. ^ Berbuir, Lewandowsky & Siri 2015, pp. 162–163.
  10. ^ Brady, Kate (13 May 2024). "Germany's far-right AfD loses appeal of 'suspected extremist' designation – The Washington Post". The Washington Post.
  11. ^ a b Schultheis, Emily (28 September 2021). "Germany's far-right AfD loses nationally, but wins in the East". Politico. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  12. ^ Kinkartz, Sabine (7 July 2023). "Poll: Far-right AfD is Germany's second strongest party". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Economic liberal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Stijn van Kessel (2015). Populist Parties in Europe: Agents of Discontent?. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-1-137-41411-3.
  15. ^ Wayne C. Thompson (2014). Nordic, Central, and Southeastern Europe 2014. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 283. ISBN 978-1-4758-1224-4.
  16. ^ Lee McGowan; David Phinnemore (2015). A Dictionary of the European Union. Taylor & Francis. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-1-317-44515-9.
  17. ^ "Germany's AfD: How right-wing is nationalist Alternative for Germany?". BBC News. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020. As AfD moved to the right so did he, making a number of remarks condemned as racist.
  18. ^ Zeller, Frank. "Anti-migrant, anti-Muslim and anti-Merkel, Germany's AfD set to enter parliament". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  19. ^ Ellyatt, Holly (25 September 2017). "Germany's far-right AfD party: 5 things you need to know". CNBC. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2018. Nowadays, the AfD is mainly known for its anti-immigration (namely, anti-Islamic)
  20. ^ Dancygier, Rafaela. "The anti-Muslim AfD just scored big in Germany's election. What does this mean for German Muslims?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  21. ^ Schmitt-Beck, Rüdiger (2 January 2017). "The 'Alternative für Deutschland in the Electorate': Between Single-Issue and Right-Wing Populist Party". German Politics. 26 (1): 124–148. doi:10.1080/09644008.2016.1184650. S2CID 156431715.
  22. ^ Taub, Amanda; Fisher, Max (18 January 2017). "Germany's Extreme Right Challenges Guilt Over Nazi Past". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 February 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  23. ^ "Understanding the 'Alternative for Germany': Origins, Aims and Consequences" (PDF). University of Denver. 16 November 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  24. ^ Beyer, Susanne; Fleischhauer, Jan (30 March 2016). "AfD Head Frauke Petry: 'The Immigration of Muslims Will Change Our Culture'". Der Spiegel. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  25. ^ a b Julia Leser; Florian Spissinger (2023). "The Functionality of Affects: Conceptualising Far-Right Populists Beyond Negative Emotions (Notes)". In Dan Degerman (ed.). The Politics of Negative Emotions. Policy Press. p. 172. ISBN 9781529228816.
  26. ^ Simon Franzmann (2015). "The Failed Struggle for Office Instead of Votes". In Gabriele D'Ottavio; Thomas Saalfeld (eds.). Germany After the 2013 Elections: Breaking the Mould of Post-Unification Politics?. Ashgate. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-1-4724-4439-4.
  27. ^ Gabriele D'Ottavio; Thomas Saalfeld (2015). "Introduction: Breaking the Mould of Post-Unification German Politics?". In Gabriele D'Ottavio; Thomas Saalfeld (eds.). Germany After the 2013 Elections: Breaking the Mould of Post-Unification Politics?. Ashgate Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4724-4439-4.
  28. ^ Hans-Georg Betz; Fabian Habersack (2020). "Regional Nativism in East Germany: the case of the AfD". In Reinhard Heinisch; Emanuele Massetti; Oscar Mazzoleni (eds.). The People and the Nation: Populism and Ethno-Territorial Politics in Europe. Taylor & Francis. pp. 115–116. ISBN 978-1-351-26554-6.
  29. ^ "Thousands rally in Hanover against anti-Islam AfD party". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 21 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018. ... rally in Hanover against anti-Islam AfD party
  30. ^ Pfaffenbach, Kai (24 September 2017). "German Election: Anti-Islam AfD Party That Worked With U.S. Ad Agency Predicted To Take Third Place". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018. Sunday's election in Germany is expected to bring big gains for the hard-right, anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ...
  31. ^ Horn, Heather (27 May 2016). "The Voters Who Want Islam Out of Germany". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018. The AfD's founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, left the party last summer, condemning rising xenophobia.
  32. ^ "German election: Why this vote matters". BBC News. 15 September 2017. Archived from the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  33. ^ *Lansford, Tom, ed. (2014). Political Handbook of the World 2014. Sage. p. 532. ISBN 978-1-4833-3327-4.
  34. ^ "Germany has an unholy new alliance: climate denial and the far right Bernhard Pötter". theguardian.com. 18 March 2020. Archived from the original on 24 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  35. ^ Deleja-Hotko, Vera; Müller, Ann-Katrin; Traufetter, Gerald (6 May 2019). "AfD Hopes to Win Votes by Opposing Climate Protection". Der Spiegel. Archived from the original on 24 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  36. ^ Pfeifer, Hans (1 September 2024). "Russia's best friends in Germany: AfD and BSW". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
  37. ^ Bennhold, Katrin (3 March 2021). "Germany Places Far-Right AfD Party Under Surveillance for Extremism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  38. ^ "The Utilisation of Historically Revisionist Narratives by the FPÖ and the AfD". 21 April 2021. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  39. ^ "AfD embraces Pegida ahead of German election". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 24 September 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  40. ^ Meaker, Morgan. "How Two Cities Encapsulate the Battle for Germany's Identity". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 18 February 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  41. ^ "Waving German flag, far-right and anti-Islam groups rally together before vote". Reuters. 19 September 2017. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  42. ^ "Verfassungsschutz darf AfD als »Verdachtsfall« beobachten". Der Spiegel (in German). 8 March 2022. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  43. ^ "Germany's far-right AfD party 'tearing itself apart'". www.aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  44. ^ Pittelkow, Sebastian; Riedel, Katja; Schmidt, Martin (28 January 2022). "Meuthen verlässt die AfD". Tagesschau (in German). Archived from the original on 4 June 2023.
  45. ^ "Parteichef Jörg Meuthen verlässt die AfD". Deutsche Welle (in German). 28 January 2022. Archived from the original on 13 August 2023.
  46. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  47. ^ Scholz, Kay-Alexander (2 September 2019). "What drives AfD voters in eastern Germany?". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 22 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  48. ^ Knight, Ben (11 June 2021). "Why young eastern German voters support the far-right AfD". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 22 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  49. ^ Schultheis, Emily (7 July 2021). "East Germany is still a country of its own". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 22 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  50. ^ Pfeifer, Hans (29 June 2023). "Half of eastern Germans 'want authoritarian rule'". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 23 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.


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