Two weeks ahead of Germany’s general election, much of the buzz is focused on the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party is currently polling at around 22% of the vote, trailing behind the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) but significantly ahead of the parties that formed the recently collapsed coalition government—the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party.
Concerns over the AfD’s influence go beyond polling numbers. Last week, the party helped pass a CDU-sponsored direction document on migration in the Bundestag, shaking the so-called firewall against far-right cooperation. The move triggered backlash against CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who has since claimed his party has no intention of working with the AfD. Yet, the reality is more complex. Merz may publicly distance himself from the far right, but his party has absorbed much of the AfD’s anti-migrant rhetoric and Islamophobic narratives.
Rather than confronting the effects of the economic crisis, austerity measures, and cuts to social programs which they upheld over the past decades, mainstream parties in Germany have increasingly turned to scapegoating migrants as the cause of economic hardship. “By adopting the AfD’s rhetoric, the mainstream parties are able to deflect blame and channel popular discontent away from criticism of domestic policies,” says Matthew Read from the Zetkin Forum for Social Research.
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Meanwhile, the AfD presents itself as an anti-establishment party, but it embraces the same neoliberal agenda as the parties it attacks. The party’s 2025 election program promises to “consolidate” the national budget and adhere to debt limits—boiling down to essentially the same austerity-driven economic framework that mainstream parties advocate. The AfD should not be mistaken for a party which keeps working class concerns close to its heart: if implemented, their program lines would protect the rich and make workers’ lives even harder while prosecuting migrants.
Another misleading picture the AfD has been able to paint concerns questions of war and armament. In the broader public, the party has positioned itself as an option that questions Germany’s and the EU’s approach to the war in Ukraine. Their opposition to arms shipments to Ukraine and calls for diplomatic engagement with Russia have contributed to this image.
In reality, the AfD is in favor of strengthening the securitization agenda and increasing military budgets. The party is very hostile towards China, Read notes, as well as ardently anti-Palestinian, an additional cause for concern considering the extreme attacks on Palestine solidarity movements in Germany since October 7, 2023. Self-proclaimed scepticism of the US and the EU, rather than political content, has helped the AfD appear as opposed to war—much like what has happened in other European countries.
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Although it claims an anti-war label, the AfD, just like the CDU and the SPD, remains on a path leading to more conflict. “The common thread between the developments in the US and the EU is the general mobilization towards aggression and militarization,” Read says. “The Trans-Atlantic bloc is gearing up for war.”
Despite the increasing normalization of far-right, pro-war rhetoric, alternative policy proposals have emerged from the left-wing party Die Linke and the recently formed Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). Both parties, currently polling somewhat above the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament, have outlined policy platforms that differ from the dominant political narratives, though they each struggle with internal contradictions. Die Linke’s criticism of NATO remains restrained, while the BSW adopts conservative positions on immigration.
On the other hand, the BSW explicitly rejects military interventions and foresees measures to address the cost-of-living crisis, while Die Linke’s program focuses on policies aimed at tackling the widespread housing crisis and safeguarding the right to asylum. “We reject inciting people against each other and turning refugees into scapegoats in order to divert attention from social problems,” their platform states. Policies such as these differ from the austerity measures and increasing militarization advocated by others, as well as the divisive rhetoric championed by the AfD.
