Alternative for Germany

Alternative for Germany
Alternative für Deutschland
AbbreviationAfD
Co-leaders
Deputy co-leaders
  • Stephan Brandner
  • Peter Boehringer
  • Kay Gottschalk
Parliamentary leaders
  • Tino Chrupalla
  • Alice Weidel
Honorary chairmanAlexander Gauland
FoundersAlexander Gauland
Bernd Lucke
Konrad Adam
Founded6 February 2013 (2013-02-06)
Split fromChristian Democratic Union of Germany[1]
HeadquartersSchillstraße 9 10785 Berlin
Think tankDesiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung
Membership (2024) 46,881[2]
IdeologyVölkisch nationalism
Right-wing populism
National conservatism[A]
Euroscepticism
Political positionFar-right[A][B]
European affiliationEurope of Sovereign Nations Party (since 2024)[nb 1]
European Parliament groupEurope of Sovereign Nations Group (since 2024)[nb 2]
Colours  Light blue
SloganZeit für Deutschland.
('Time For Germany.')
Bundestag
151 / 630
State Parliaments
278 / 1,891
European Parliament
15 / 96
Website
afd.de
  • Politics of Germany
  • Political parties
  • Elections
^ A: The AfD is a völkisch nationalist party, a type of ethnonationalism that defines the German nation in racial terms.[3][4][5] The party is sometimes referred to as right-wing populist or national conservative, particularly in the press, but these designations have not received much support from academics, who describe them as euphemistic.[6][7]
^ B: The AfD was not a radical right-wing party in its early phase, but moved to the populist radical right in 2015 with the replacement of its first leadership.[8] As of 2025 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has identified the AfD as being an "extreme right" political party.[9]

Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD, German pronunciation: [aːʔɛfˈdeː] ⓘ) is a far-right,[10] right-wing populist, national conservative,[A][11][12] and völkisch nationalist political party in Germany.[4][5][13] It is a member of the neo-fascist[19] Europe of Sovereign Nations Group in the European Parliament.[20]

Its name reflects its resistance to the mainstream policies of Angela Merkel and her slogan Alternativlosigkeit (lit. 'alternative-less-ness', a German version of "there is no alternative").[21] Established in April 2013, AfD narrowly missed the 5% electoral threshold to sit in the Bundestag during the 2013 federal election. The party won seven seats in the 2014 European Parliament election in Germany as a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). After securing representation in 14 of the 16 German state parliaments by October 2017, AfD won 94 seats in the 2017 federal election and became the third-largest party in the country, as well as the largest opposition party; its lead candidates were the co-vice chairman Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, the latter having served as the party group leader in the 19th Bundestag. In the 2021 federal election, AfD dropped to being the fifth-largest party in the 20th Bundestag.[22] Following the 2025 federal election, it became the second-largest party and the largest opposition party in the 21st Bundestag.

AfD was founded by Gauland, Bernd Lucke, and former members of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) to oppose the policies of the Eurozone as a right-wing and moderately Eurosceptic alternative to the centre-right but pro-European CDU. The party presented itself as an economically liberal,[23] Eurosceptic, and conservative movement in its early years.[24][25][26] AfD subsequently moved further to the right,[27] and expanded its policies under successive leaderships to include opposition to immigration,[28][29] Islam,[30] and the European Union.[31] Since 2015, with the beginning of the refugee crisis in Europe, AfD's ideology has been characterised by German nationalism,[32][33][34] Völkisch nationalism,[35] right-wing populism,[36] and national conservatism.[37][38][39] It has a policy focus on opposing Islam,[40][41][42] opposing immigration into Germany,[43] especially Muslim immigration into Germany,[44] welfare chauvinism,[35] Euroscepticism,[45][46] denial of human-caused global warming,[47][48] and supporting closer relations with Russia.[49]

Several state associations and other factions of AfD have been linked to or accused of harboring connections with far-right nationalist and proscribed movements, such as PEGIDA, the Neue Rechte, and the Identitarian movement,[50] and of employing historical revisionism,[51] as well as xenophobic rhetoric.[52][53][54] They have been observed by various state offices for the protection of the constitution since 2018.[55] AfD's leadership has denied that the party is racist and has been internally divided on whether to endorse such groups.[56] In January 2022, after a failed power struggle, party leader Jörg Meuthen resigned his party chairmanship with immediate effect and left the AfD, stating that the party had moved very far to the right with totalitarian traits and in large parts was no longer based on the liberal democratic basic order.[57][58] Former party chairman and co-founder of the AfD, Lucke, had left the party in 2015 with the same remark.[59]

The party is the strongest in the areas of the former communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany), especially the states of Saxony and Thuringia, largely due to economic and integration issues that continue to persist post-reunification,[60][61][62] in addition to the East German voters' perceived propensity for strongman rule.[63] In the 2021 federal elections, AfD fell from third to fifth place overall but made gains in the eastern states (the former East Germany).[22] In the former East Berlin, it came in second after SPD with 20.5% of the vote; in the west, it came in fifth with 8.4% of the vote. In the 2025 German federal election, AfD received record 20.8% of the vote and ended on second place behind CDU/CSU.

  1. ^ Lachmann, Günther (4 October 2012). "Euro-Politik: Enttäuschte CDU-Politiker gründen Wahlalternative" [Euro policy: Disappointed CDU politicians found electoral alternative]. Die Welt (in German). Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference membership2024 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Salzborn, Samuel (2019). "Antisemitism in the "Alternstive for Germany" Party". In Langenbacher, Eric (ed.). Twilight of the Merkel Era: Power and Politics in Germany after the 2017 Bundestag Election. New York: Berghahn. p. 254. ISBN 978-1-78920-264-9. The relatively new party known as the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) and its relationship to right-wing extremism have been the subject of a great deal of intensive discussion among political and social scientists. While one stream of research focuses primarily on the strategic aspects of the AfD, such as its populist rhetoric and use of social media, another devotes more attention to the worldview of the AfD, and its increasing radicalization from a right-wing conservative party to a right-wing extremist one... It has become undeniable that the AfD has now adopted large parts of the far-right tradition, including racism and völkisch nationalism (a form of ethnonationalism) as central components with an ideology of inequality, alongside nationalist protectionism and anti-EU economic positions, an emphatic rejection of parliamentarianism and representative democracy, and a long-standing antifeminism and hostility towards gender equality.
  4. ^ a b Klikauer, Thomas (2020). Alternative für Deutschland: The AfD: Germany's New Nazis or another Populist Party?. Liverpool University Press. pp. 43–60. doi:10.2307/j.ctv3029sdf.7. ISBN 978-1-78976-046-0. JSTOR j.ctv3029sdf.
  5. ^ a b Havertz, Ralf (30 March 2021). "Völkisch nationalism as core ideology". Radical Right Populism in Germany: AfD, Pegida, and the Identitarian Movement. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000368864. Within only a few years the party changed its ideological position significantly and moved gradually but rapidly further to the far-right fringe, with a combination of populism, authoritarianism, volkish nationalism, and xenophobia as the central elements of their ideology.
  6. ^ Klikauer, Thomas (2020). "Nazis or Populists?". Alternative für Deutschland: The AfD: Germany's New Nazis or another Populist Party?. Liverpool University Press. pp. 79–96. doi:10.2307/j.ctv3029sdf.9. ISBN 978-1-78976-046-0. JSTOR j.ctv3029sdf. The AfD is just another populist party is a line frequently rehearsed. Yet this camouflages the AfD's true ideology – it is much more than classic populism that sets the 'pure people against the corrupt elite'. Even if seen in populism's triage – ideology, style, and strategy – the AfD goes well beyond that...
  7. ^ Fitzi, Gregor; Mackert, Jürgen; Turner, Bryan Stanley (2019). Populism and the crisis of democracy. Routledge advances in sociology. London New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis group. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-351-60898-5. Why should we denote Germany's AfD... as right-wing populist? Too often it seems that 'populism' operates [inaccurately] as a kind of euphemism for (neo-)fascism.
  8. ^ Mudde, Cas (2016). "Introduction to the populist radical right". In Mudde, Cas (ed.). The Populist Radical Right: A Reader. Routledge. pp. 1–10. ISBN 978-1-315-51456-7.
  9. ^ Kirby, Paul (2 May 2025). "AfD classified as extreme-right by German intelligence". www.bbc.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2025. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
  10. ^ Far-right:
  11. ^ Lochocki, Timo (10 June 2025). "The kids are all right: What Germany's conservative turn means for Europe". ECFR. Retrieved 17 August 2025. "Germany's federal election in February shattered political precedent: a far-right party, the Alternative for Germany, surged into second place for the first time in the federal republic's history and a newly elected chancellor broke a longstanding taboo by signalling a willingness to cooperate with them." "These developments reflect a broader shift. Younger conservatives are more likely to embrace hardline policies and far-right parties; their opinions are less influenced by Germany's post-war legacy and the Holocaust. This is pushing the new government towards more nationalistic domestic policies and a more assertive foreign policy.
  12. ^ "Far-right AfD tops German popularity ranking in bombshell new survey". POLITICO. 12 August 2025. Archived from the original on 25 August 2025. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  13. ^ Klikauer, Thomas (2020). "The AfD Voter". Alternative für Deutschland: The AfD: Germany's New Nazis or another Populist Party?. Liverpool University Press. pp. 43–60. doi:10.2307/j.ctv3029sdf.7. ISBN 978-1-78976-046-0. JSTOR j.ctv3029sdf. Plagued by years of infighting, the party had decided to select a new leadership. Since 2015, many of its members and its new leaders... had shifted the party away from conservative-reactionary politics and towards its racially motivated völkische and ultra-nationalistic wing. This move positioned the AfD even more to the extreme right.
  14. ^ Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica; Hee, Stefan (2024). "2024 European Election in Germany:A Rightward Shift Amidst Government Setbacks". Politique européenne. 86 (4): 114–121. ISSN 1623-6297. The AfD was excluded from the EP's new far-right group, Patriots for Europe (formerly Identity & Democracy), and formed their own group, "Europe of Sovereign Nations" with smaller neo-fascist and ultra nationalist parties.
  15. ^ O'Cearbhaill, Muiris (18 July 2024). "Gaza, defence, housing and economy: Ursula von der Leyen outlines her leadership plan to MEPs". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 3 June 2025. The new, neo-fascist Europe of Sovereign Nations group accused the President of not doing enough on Migration and suggested that the Migration and Asylum Pact will not be enough to tackle the influx of people seeking asylum.
  16. ^ Colomina, Carme (September 2024). "Un nuevo ciclo para la extrema derecha europea: más fragmentación, más visibilidad" [A new cycle for the European far right: more fragmentation, more visibility]. Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. Anuario Internacional Anuario Internacional CIDOB 2025 (in Spanish) (2024 ed.). Retrieved 3 June 2025. ; y el fascismo desacomplejado de Alternativa para Alemania (AfD), que conjunta las piezas restantes en un tercer grupo llamado Europa de las Naciones Soberanas. [; and the unabashed fascism of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which brings together the remaining pieces into a third group called Europe of Sovereign Nations.]
  17. ^ Rodríguez Aguilera de Prat, Cesáreo (29 January 2025). "Cómo la ultraderecha está transformando la UE: integración, inmigración y transición ecológica". agendapublica.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  18. ^ Marat, Mark (11 July 2024). "Gegen das Establishment? – Wie die AfD ihr bürgerliches Profil schärft". perspektive-online.net (in German). Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  19. ^ [14][15][16][17][18]
  20. ^ "Europe of Sovereign Nations". Europe of Sovereign Nations. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
  21. ^ Berbuir, Lewandowsky & Siri 2015, pp. 162–163.
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  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Economic liberal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Stijn van Kessel (2015). Populist Parties in Europe: Agents of Discontent?. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-1-137-41411-3.
  25. ^ Wayne C. Thompson (2014). Nordic, Central, and Southeastern Europe 2014. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 283. ISBN 978-1-4758-1224-4.
  26. ^ Lee McGowan; David Phinnemore (2015). A Dictionary of the European Union. Taylor & Francis. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-1-317-44515-9.
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  28. ^ Zeller, Frank. "Anti-migrant, anti-Muslim and anti-Merkel, Germany's AfD set to enter parliament". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
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  35. ^ a b Julia Leser; Florian Spissinger (2023). "The Functionality of Affects: Conceptualising Far-Right Populists Beyond Negative Emotions (Notes)". In Dan Degerman (ed.). The Politics of Negative Emotions. Policy Press. p. 172. ISBN 9781529228816.
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  40. ^ "Thousands rally in Hanover against anti-Islam AfD party". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 21 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018. ... rally in Hanover against anti-Islam AfD party
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  46. ^ *Lansford, Tom, ed. (2014). Political Handbook of the World 2014. Sage. p. 532. ISBN 978-1-4833-3327-4.
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  49. ^ Pfeifer, Hans (1 September 2024). "Russia's best friends in Germany: AfD and BSW". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 22 December 2024.
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  59. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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