Germany’s far right is in a positive mood.
On Saturday, during a meeting in the eastern Saxony town of Riesa, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) announced plans to close Germany’s borders and restart purchases of Russian gas, effectively dismantling the European Union. He set out his ambition.
German media reported that the party’s agreed manifesto includes plans to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, leave the euro currency and create a new coalition of states.
AfD leader Alice Weidel even publicly embraced the word “migrant”. The term is widely understood to mean the mass “return” or deportation of people with immigrant backgrounds.
On Saturday, thousands of anti-AfD demonstrators swarmed the streets of Riesa and tried to block access to the conference venue.
When Alice Weidell finally took the stage, she described the activists outside as a “leftist mob.”
He then spoke about “mass repatriation” in front of a chamber of overjoyed delegates.
“And we have to be honest: If it’s called re-immigration, it really is re-immigration,” she said.
This is a marked difference from just a year ago, when she was trying to distance herself from a scandal centered around a highly controversial concept.
Anti-AfD demonstrations erupted across the country after it was revealed that party leaders had also attended a meeting in which immigration was allegedly discussed with Martin Sellner, an Austrian far-right activist with a neo-Nazi past.
Sellner writes about “migrant” asylum seekers, some foreigners with residency rights, and “unassimilated” nationals.
It’s a buzzword on the far right in Europe, but some argue that legal residents cannot be forced to leave. Critics argue that “removal” is simply a euphemism for an overtly racist mass deportation program.
But Alice Weidel’s decision to privately coin the term weeks after the federal election vote signals the party’s growing radicalism and self-confidence.
She also promised to demolish a wind farm, which she called a “windmill of shame”, leave the EU’s asylum system and “expel” a gender studies professor.
The AfD consistently ranks second in opinion polls in Germany and made gains in recent local elections in the east, where it is strongest.
However, the chances of winning government are very slim as other parties will not cooperate with AfD.
Parts of the AfD are classified as right-wing extremists by domestic intelligence agencies.
In 2024, the AfD’s far-right talisman, Björn Höcke, was twice fined for using the Nazi SA paramilitary group’s banned phrase “Alles für Deutschland” (“All for Germany”). It was done.
He called it “everyday writing” and denied being aware of its origins, despite being a former history teacher.
Reports that participants at this weekend’s conference in Riesa chanted “Alice to Germany” quickly drew comparisons in German media.
However, AfD officials have frequently complained that they are demonized and persecuted by a biased media and establishment.
And Alice Weidel’s party (of which she is co-leader and current candidate for chancellor) has weathered many storms and is now polling around 20 percent, or even more, in national polls.
The 45-year-old economist, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs and is in a same-sex relationship, has sought to smooth out the party’s rough edges.
But for those strongly opposed to the AfD, she is a fig leaf, or, in the words of one social democrat, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Regardless, she was thrust into a new spotlight last week after being invited to speak live on the X Platform by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who wholeheartedly endorsed the party.
During this debate, her remark that Adolf Hitler was actually a communist drew condemnation, given the Nazi leader’s famous anti-communism.
Critics have warned of Nazi revisionism, something the AfD has been accused of before.
Björn Höcke once called for a “180-degree turn” in Germany’s response to its Nazi past, and former co-leader Alexander Gauland described the Nazi era as “just a small piece in Germany’s more than 1,000-year history of success.” “It’s just a matter of time,” he said. ”.
Nevertheless, the AfD’s anti-establishment, anti-immigration, anti-‘woke’ policies are finding supporters in Germany, which will go to the polls on February 23rd.
