Alternative for Germany

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Alternative for Germany Logo, Google Images licensed with Creative Commons

Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, Afd) is a populist ‘fast-growing’ anti-refugee and Eurosceptic party[1] founded in 2013.[2]

Elections

In Germany, AfD is represented in three eastern state parliaments.[2]. In February 2015 it won 6.1% of the vote in the elections for the state parliament of Hamburg, enough to gain it representation for the first time in the Western part of Germany, an important symbolic victory and sign that its support was becoming more mainstream.[3]

In January 2015, the party was said to be 'polling at around 6%', a level which, if sustained 'would clear the 5% threshold for seats in parliament in several critical state elections next year and in the federal parliament in 2017'.[4]

In March 2016, the AfD managed to enter all three state parliaments during regional elections, gaining 24.2% of votes in Saxony-Anhalt -making it the second largest party after the CDU- 12.6% in Rhineland-Palatinate, and 15.1% in Baden-Württemberg. [5] Its dramatic gains were reportedly won 'off the back of rising anger with Angela Merkel’s asylum policy'. [6]

Ideology

Many analysts argue Angela Merkel - in her capacity as German chancellor and head of the conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) - is to blame for the AfD's emergence. By giving the CDU a more centrist makeover, leaving space at the right fringes, be it the nuclear power phase-out or the discontinuation of compulsory military service, she allegedly disconcerted voters who saw the pillars of their conservative view of the world shaken to the core. [7]

According to the Wall Street Journal in January 2015, the party had 'managed to avoid the Nazi label stuck to other right-wing German parties thanks in part to its image as a group founded by sober professors opposed to eurozone bailouts rather than by nationalist rabble-rousers'.[4]

Since then however, the party has increasing shifted towards the right and a hardline anti-refugee stance under the leadership of a 40-year-old Christian chemist and mother-of-four Frauke Petry. She took over in July 2015, prompting co-founders Bernd Lucke and Konrad Adam to quit the party because of the increasing polarisation between factions over direction away from Lucke's original economic focus. Moreover, the dramatically lower influx of refugees due to the closure of borders around Europe has prompted the AfD to shift its campaign agenda to one of stopping the “Islamification” of Germany.

In its March 2016 manifesto, the party called for a ban on minarets, Muslim calls to prayer, headscarves and halal slaughter. [8] [9]It also contained policies that, to some, are reminiscent of the Nazi regime, including incentivising German women to have three or more children, imprisoning drug addicts and people with mental health issues who did not respond to therapy. [10]

In February 2016 Petry attracted wide condemnation after remarking that refugees should be shot at Germany's borders. She later tried to claim the press had lied about this however an audio-recording of the interview in which she had said this was released by Rhein-Zeitung. [11]

Attitudes towards PEGIDA

Alexander Gauland, described as a 'party elder' by The Economist[2], has declared the AfD ‘the natural allies' of the anti-Islam PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West) movement and said he would attend a demonstration in December 2014[1]. He has also called for a stop to the migration into Germany of Muslims from the Middle East who 'aren’t willing or able to integrate'.[4]

A party leader Bernd Lucke has, according to the Daily Telegraph, called it 'good and right' that people were expressing their fears by demonstrating with PEGIDA and has written that the movement was 'a sign that these people do not feel their concerns are understood by politicians'.[12] This has been interpreted as indicating support for PEGIDA since other German politicians have strongly condemned the demonstrations. The other two leaders Frauke Petry and Konrad Adam are also said to 'sympathise' with PEGIDA.[2]

An Economist straw poll found that support was strong in the other direction: the magazine suggested 9 out of 10 supporters of PEGIDA would back AfD.[2] But some sources also suggest that AfD has 'faced internal division' over some of its members backing PEGIDA.[13]

Deputy leader and MEP, Hans-Olaf Henkel, reportedly called on party members not to join the demonstrators, saying there could be 'xenophobic or even racist connotations'[12] and reportedly wants the party only to retain an anti-euro message rather than use what The Economist calls 'populist innuendo against asylum-seekers, immigrants and homosexuals'.[2]

However, members such as Björn Höcke, who heads the party's branch in the state of Thuringia in the former East, have been known to use the anti-Islamization PEGIDA marches, concentrated in the eastern city of Dresden, as a platform for gaining support. According to Johannes Radke, a journalist and long-term observer of right-wing politics, "The AfD is very good at getting people who are on the streets [with PEGIDA] to go and vote for them". [14]

It has become common to see AfD placards calling for government figures to be lynched as punishment, just as during Pegida rallies. In January 2016, an AfD functionary called for the death penalty to be introduced so that the government could be “placed against a wall” and shot. [15]

Support

Nationally

For a long time, the established parties tried to ignore the AfD, hoping it would dissolve in another round of internal fighting. The German media only focused on the AfD in connection with the party's far right radical tendencies or its domestic disputes. The AfD resorted to slamming the press with a slogan adopted from the Pegida movement: "Lügenpresse" (lying press). [16]

The party benefits from the support of quite a few doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs, especially at a local level. A glance at the top AfD candidates in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania vote mirrors the party's clientele. In northeastern Germany, the AfD is turning into a threat to the CDU and the liberal FDP. [17]

A man reportedly involved in organising the activities of both Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) and the more violent Hooligans Against Salafists (HoGeSa)[18], was some sources claimed a lawyer and member of AfD.[19]

European Parliament

In May 2014, AfD had seven candidates gain seats in the European parliament. Its MEPs include deputy leader Hans-Olaf Henkel.[3]

In February 2016, the AfD started cooperating with the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) under the “Blue Alliance”, prompting the Euro Conservative group (ECR) to exclude the AfD from their group in April. [20]

Split

In June 2016, the party split over anti-semitic remarks expressed by Wolfgang Gedeon, a regional law-maker. Thirteen members of the party — including the regional president Jörg Meuthen— quit and form a new alliance called Alternative for Baden-Württemberg. [21]

People

Leadership

In January 2015, the party had three leaders:

  • Bernd Lucke - joint party leader in January 2015[2] until 8 July 2015.
  • Frauke Petry - joint party leader in January 2015[2] sole leader from July 2015.
  • Konrad Adam - joint party leader in January 2015[2] until July 2015.

Others

Former members

Funding

Government subsidy loophole

In Germany, electoral rules state the the federal government must match, up to a value of €5 million, any funds raised privately by a political party. In a bid to get the full allocation of state funding, AfD went through a loophole by selling gold bullion online since November 2014. In the two weeks after the scheme was announced they sold gold coins and bars worth €1.6 million. [22] By boosting its income via its gold trade, the AfD ensured that it was entitled to extra subsidies even though the profit was marginal.

In December 2015, the new party funding law was passed, altering the regulation so that only profit, rather than turnover, was eligible for the state subsidy, drastically slashing the AfD's income. The party's deputy leader Beatrix von Storch claimed that the alteration meant the AfD would lose 2 million euros that same year, and immediately issued an emergency call for a 100-euro donation from each of its 20,000 members. [23]

Affiliations

Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Adam Withnall, Germany sees 'visible rise' in support for far-right extremism in response to perceived 'Islamisation' of the West, The Independent, 15 December 2014, accessed 5 Jan 2015
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Gone boy on the right, The Economist, 24 January 2015
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Peter Teffer, Anti-euro party AfD enters state parliament in Hamburg, EU Observer, 16 February 2015
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Anton Troianovski, Upstart German Party Considers Anti-Islam Stance], Wall Street Journal, 28 January 2015
  5. ↑ Anon. German state elections: Success for right-wing AfD, losses for Merkel's CDU, DW, 13 March 2016. Accessed 13 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Philip Oltermann in Berlin, Anti-refugee AfD party makes big gains in German state elections, guardian.com, 13 march 2016 accessed same day
  7. ↑ Kay-Alexander Scholz, 'What is the Alternative for Germany?, Die Weit, 05 September 2016. Accessed 15 September 2016.
  8. ↑ Kate Connolly 'Frauke Petry: the acceptable face of Germany’s new right?' - The Guardian, 19 June 2016. Accessed 14 September 2016.
  9. ↑ Elisabeth Schumacher, 'German populists AfD adopt anti-Islam manifesto' DW, 1 May 2016. Accessed 14 September 2016.
  10. ↑ Brenna Daldorph, 'Frauke 'Adolfina' Petry: the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam threat to Merkel', France 24, 05 September 2016. Accessed 15 September 2016.
  11. ↑ [http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/nachrichten/deutschland-und-welt_artikel,-Luegenpresse-AfD-Chefin-Frauke-Petry-schreibt-ihr-Interview-dreist-um-_arid,1436297.html Lügenpresse? AfD-Chefin Frauke Petry schreibt ihr Interview dreist um, 4 February 2016, accessed 14 March 2016
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Justin Huggler, German Eurosceptics embrace anti-Islam protests, Daily Telegraph, 10 December 2014
  13. ↑ PEGIDA leader Kathrin Oertel resigns one week after founder quits, CBC/Reuters, 28 January, accessed 2 February
  14. ↑ Elizabeth Schumacher 'Activists try to sabotage AfD funding as populists rise in polls' DW, 11 December 2015. Accessed 13 September 2016.
  15. ↑ Kate Connolly, 'Frauke Petry: smiling face of Germany’s resurgent right', The Guardian, 07 February 2016. Accessed September 15 2015.
  16. ↑ Kay-Alexander Scholz, 'What is the Alternative for Germany?, Die Weit, 05 September 2016. Accessed 15 September 2016.
  17. ↑ Kay-Alexander Scholz, 'What is the Alternative for Germany?, Die Weit, 05 September 2016. Accessed 15 September 2016.
  18. ↑ The End of Tolerance? Anti-Muslim Movement Rattles Germany, Spiegel Online International, 21 December 2014, accessed 5 January 2015
  19. ↑ Anti-Islamization protests expand in Germany, DW.de, 7 December 2014, accessed 6 January 2015
  20. ↑ Julie Levy-Abegnoli, ''ECR group moves to expel extreme right AfD MEPs' The Parliament Magazine, 9 March 2016. Accessed 14 September 2016.
  21. ↑ Cynthia Kroet, 'Germany’s far-right AfD split over anti-Semitism' "Politico", 07 June 2016. Accessed 12 September 2016.
  22. ↑ Mark O'Byrne, 'Germany's Third Largest Political Party Sells €1.6 Million of Gold In Two Weeks', Goldcore, 04 November 2014. Accessed 13 September 2016.
  23. ↑ Ben Knight, 'After the gold rush: AfD loses state subsidies', DW, 18 December 2015. Accessed 13 September 2016.
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