It was created in February 2013. It became the “successor” of Wahlalternative 2013 (Electoral Alternative 2013), which was founded by economists, journalists, entrepreneurs. In the beginning, a fringe party that wanted to cover for Angela Merkel’s disillusioned Right, as well as save Greece – and, on reflection, the Eurozone – which was red cloth for her as a “failed” system.

In the April elections of the same year, he almost elected the deputies of the Bundestag, the Federal Parliament of Germany, but did not overcome the “threshold” of the required 5%. Then the 2015 immigration crisis came. “An alternative for Germany” (ADG) saw her great opportunities in this.

And he took advantage of her. In addition, former Christian Democrat MP, founding member and now AfD honorary president Alexander Gauland described Angela Merkel’s humanitarian policy of tolerance and hospitality as a “gift” to the flocking refugees and immigrants – mostly from Syria – to Europe.

Typical European ultra -right?

The AfD has all the familiar elements of the European far right: Euroscepticism, anti-immigrant politics under the guise of extreme economic liberalism. It was aimed at population groups in the former East Germany who, until 1989, did not know what “immigration” meant. In fact, East Germany, a strong part of the Iron Curtain, was more prone to radicalization – right and left – after the collapse of the Cold War bipolarity, which created economic and cultural insecurity with subsequent globalization, which in Europe took the form of a common currency.

Slowly and steadily, the Alternative for Germany is trying to become… a mainstream party.

By persistent and cautious steps, using all appropriate means to stir up fears in Germans about the change of their homeland – social, economic – in the European elections of 2014, she managed to get seven seats in the European Parliament. In the local elections of 2017, she elected deputies in 14 out of 16 states, and in the federal elections of the same year she managed to get into the Bundestag, electing 94 deputies. The incitement of the low -powered instincts of the German population paid off. It was a big moment for the party that happened the first far-right party elected to the Bundestag since World War II, and there.

At the same time, it moves further and further to the right. Anti-Islamist rhetoric, generalized xenophobia, anti-Semitism and nationalist conservatism are on the rise and infiltrating the German political scene as, analysts write, “radical statements have reached segments of the population that welcome AfD politicians who dare to speak out openly and openly.” upset the political establishment.” However, in the 2021 federal election, even as then Chancellor Merkel’s CDU backed down, the AfD lost 11 parliamentary seats, falling to 83.

Perhaps this decrease was facilitated by the statements of the then chapter K.O. party member Alexander Gowland that the Nazi period was nothing more than a “flash” in the thousand-year history of the country. And with such questions, the Germans and the German authorities do not … play. It was then, in 2018, that Berlin’s special services began to follow the party.

In March 2021, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) labeled the party as a whole “suspected of far-right extremism”. For the German political elite, this means that its members can be placed under state supervision.

From Russia… to the pandemic

In the fall of 2021, the AfD publicly declares its pro-Russian position by sending deputies to Moscow to meet with their counterparts in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. As Deutsche Welle wrote, both sides called for the “normalization, deepening and improvement” of Russian-German relations and the lifting of Western sanctions at a time when Berlin and Moscow were divided over the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny and the rest of Europe teetered on the brink of Russia due to tensions over Ukraine, which eventually led to an invasion in February 2022.

In fact, Chancellor Olaf Solz himself called the AfD “the party of Russia” before the Bundestag, answering a question from an AfD deputy who described the sanctions against Moscow by Germany and the EU. “Useless”, offering the re -opening of the Northern Stream – 2 gas pipeline.

In the midst of the pandemic, of course, the AfD found another opportunity to feed the phobic instincts of German citizens, which has also happened to other far-right parties in Europe and elsewhere; in Greece we dealt with the Greek solution. The German ultra-right then spoke, on the one hand, about restricting the freedoms of citizens, and on the other hand, with unscientific rhetoric, they opposed the vaccination of citizens, refuting all the conspiracy theories spread here and there. In fact, experts say, it was the rhetoric of a “victim of nationalism,” as he compared the “socially excluded,” the unvaccinated, with … “free immigrants,” who, according to the AfD, moved freely around the country.

A tendency to public partnership

He used the same rhetoric from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and beyond. Something that seems – at least in terms of polls – is paying off, as recent measurements put the AfD at close to 16-17%, opening up its appetite for cooperation with the government, if not at the federal level, then at the state level. After all, this was stated by one of the leaders of the party, Alisa Weidel, who claims that her party is ready to take on state duties, in connection with which the question arises: with whom?

Will Germany violate his political culture?

According to Deutsche Welle, a spokesman for the German Christian Democrats confirms that “the firewall remains. We have a clear decision of the party conference, which says that any cooperation with the AfD is excluded.” But also Frank Dekker, professor of political science at the University of Bonn, believes that cooperation with the AfD “is an absolute taboo, and if the Christian Democrats break it, then there will be no stone left in the party.” As a result, the AfD “knows that it is not going to govern together,” says a German analyst.

At the same time, the AfD called on its members across Germany to nominate themselves as jurors in the country’s courts so that “justice does not fall into the hands of the left.” The German system of “people’s judges”, as they say, provides for the term of office of the elected, so for the far right – but not only – it is always an opportunity to infiltrate the German judicial system.

At the same time, the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, which has direct links to the AfD, demanded equal treatment from the German state, equating itself with the CDU Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the SPD Friedrich Herbert Foundation, the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation for the Left and the Heinrich Bell Foundation. Green base. He requested and finally received a positive response from the German Supreme Court, after which he will be able to receive public funding. It is noted that, according to Deutsche Welle, these institutions in Germany are responsible for political education at home and abroad, and their activities include organizing events, conducting research and providing scholarships.

“Unconstitutional ambitions” of the “Youth” party

And here we are in 2023. According to the New York Times, a German intelligence agency yesterday Wednesday called the AfD Youth (Alternative Youth) an “extremist group” that “threatens the constitution,” another blow to an organization that has come under increasing scrutiny over the past four years due to concerns about radicalization. This step is already called unprecedented for post-war Germany.

What does this designation mean? Reportedly, when a group is classified as extremist, its members are generally barred from state appointments and are not allowed to purchase weapons. At the same time, this designation allows the German authorities to more easily issue permits for surveillance of members of the relevant extremist group.

Three extremist groups are under surveillance: the AfD Youth, the State Policy Institute and the One Percent group.

Along with the “Alternative Youth”, the authorities declared the Institute of Public Policy and the group “One Percent” extremist, demonstrating the trinity of what is now called the New Right in Germany, which appeared in recent years under the guise of …, especially friendly people who want to separate themselves from the “Old right”, which for a number of years were associated with neo-Nazism. According to the NYT, many of them are studying Gandhi, experimenting with communal living and organic gardening. And like leftist students in the 1970s or environmental activists in the 1990s, they organize sudden protests to gain public attention.

“There is no longer any doubt that these three groups (including the Alternative Youth, the Public Policy Institute and the One Percent) have unconstitutional ambitions,” the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said. Adding, especially for the youth of the AfD, that she is working against the “principle of democracy”, belittling political opponents and the state. “Alternative youth show a general contempt for the democratic system of the Federal Republic of Germany,” the BfV said in its decision.

Both AfD leaders naturally spoke of an “outrageous decision”. “At this point, we have no grounds or relevant documents to substantiate this act,” while they consider seeking justice.

In fact, Commission President Thomas Haldenwang previously justified the decision to monitor Alternative Youth by speaking of spreading hatred and encouraging violence against minorities, adding that the Commission “also monitors groups of people who spread an ideology that offends human dignity as well as democracy “, which violates the first words of the German constitution: “Human dignity must be inviolable.”

Blows, “Citizens of the Reich” and the Kremlin

However, according to German reports, this could hurt the AfD, which appears in polls as a third party after the SPD and the Greens. This would be the second blow to the far-right party, as its members were linked to the group’s plot to overthrow democracy in Germany. “Citizens of the Reich”while the AfD member was allegedly also Carsten Linkean employee of the German secret service who passed information to Russia.

Many, of course, are wondering if the decision to declare the AfD Youth “dangerous to democracy” is due to what the Washington Post published a few days ago. According to a US newspaper report, the leaked documents document meetings between Kremlin officials and Russian political analysts in which Moscow orders strategic analysts to focus on Germany to moderate support for Ukraine. The same files “show” that at least several AfD members were in contact with Russian officials at the time of the plans in question, which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed as completely false information “as we don’t know.” no time for that.”