The growing popularity of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has become an unpalatable feature of Europe’s political landscape. Last summer it won a district election outright for the first time since being founded in 2013. On a virulently xenophobic platform, it now lies second in national polls and leads in three eastern states that will hold elections in the autumn. As chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government has struggled to navigate the multiple challenges of Covid, Ukraine, the cost of living crisis and the green transition, the AfD has exploited widespread insecurity and hardship for its own unpleasant ends.
Concern has been compounded by renewed fears that the party represents a material threat to Germany’s postwar constitution. On Sunday, Mr Scholz and his foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, joined thousands of marchers participating in a demonstration in Potsdam to “defend democracy”. The catalyst was the revelation that in November, senior AfD figures joined with other prominent far-right extremists to discuss a plan for forced mass deportations of migrants. Those discussed as problematic allegedly included German citizens with migrant roots, if it was judged they did “not adapt to the majority society”. Among those present was an adviser to the AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel.
