Made in Germany: The Rise Of Germanys New Right

The rise of the German new right and the Afd Party 

The Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) is a right-wing to far-right political party in Germany. Founded in April 2013i n Berlin by Eurosceptic and nationalist Professors like Bernd Luke it became Germanys first right-wing populist party. 

In 2013, the AfD narrowly missed the 5% electoral threshold to sit in the Bundestag during the 2013 federal election. In 2014 the party won seven seats in the European election as a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists. After securing representation in 14 of the 16 German state parliaments by October of 2017, the AfD became the third largest party in Germany after the 2017 federal election, claiming 94 seats in the Bundestag, a major breakthrough for the party as it was the first time a right wing party had won any seats in the Bundestag since over 50 years. The party is chaired by Jörg Meuthen; its lead candidates in the 2017 elections were AfD Co-Vice Chairman Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel who now serves as the party group leader in the Bundestag. 

Since about 2015, and the refugee crisis in Germany the AfD is increasingly open to working with far-right groups such as the Pegida movement. Portions of the AfD show racist, Islamophobic and/or anti-Semitic tendencies linked to far-right movements such as the Neo-Nazi party NPD and the Identitarian Movement. The strongest support is in the former GDR parts of the reunified country making the AfD in the State of Saxony the strongest party with 27 % of the votes in 2017 federal elections, toping Merkels CDU.