It is not by accident that this has occurred, or is now more likely to occur, on the issue of immigration. It is my contention that across the globe, including America and many European countries, the single most animating issue favoring the right is immigration. That is obviously true in America where the issue contended with inflation to persuade the electorate in favor of Donald Trump. It might well be the issue in the United Kingdom that persuades the electorate on behalf of Nigel Farage.
So the CDU read the electorate and concluded what any self-interested politician would conclude, the party will not survive if it persists in tolerating uncontrolled immigration.
The question for the AFD now is, has it by moving the country closer to an actual solution of the immigration problem forfeited its most compelling issue? Will that confound AFD's stated policy to force itself into a coalition because of its popularity, most of which it is earned by its opposition to immigration?
However, the AFD has also significant economic policy prescriptions that, like immigration, are almost word for word the policy positions of MAGA in America but with one very significant and ominous difference: another stated position of AFD is to divorce itself from alliance with America and form close alliances, economic as well as geopolitical, with Russia and China.
So a potential coalition government including AFD will come they potentially mixed benefit that must be closely monitored.
