German Progressives Go After AfD Again

The European Conservative ^ | 14 Aug, 2025 | Javier Villamor

[MtnClimber]

At a time when Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has emerged as the most popular political force in the country, overtaking even the traditional parties that have governed for decades, Germany’s state apparatus—together with allied cultural and media organisations—is intensifying efforts to isolate and discredit it.

The latest example comes from Berlin, where the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, a taxpayer-funded cultural institution, will in September host the ‘heimaten Festival für die plurale Demokratie’ (‘Festival for Plural Democracy’) an event with a distinctly ideological tone aimed at countering the populist right. Organised under the authority of Minister for Culture Wolfram Weimer and supported by the Federal Chancellery through the state-owned agency that organises cultural events (Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes GmbH) in Berlin, the festival features a programme explicitly framed as a continuation of the “fight against the far right.”

Promoted under slogans such as “activism,” “anti-fascism,” “decolonisation,” and “belonging”, the festival will host panel discussions, workshops, and collaborations with activist groups. One highlight is the panel Antifaschismus als konkrete Utopie (‘Anti-fascism as a concrete utopia’), featuring journalist and action artist Jean Peters.. The blurb advertising the session claims Germany faces “a decisive moment” 80 years after World War II, accusing the “self-styled bourgeoisie” of normalising nationalism and noting that “the largest opposition party in the Bundestag is classified as confirmed far right.”

[MtnClimber]

It is so ironic that the leftists are calling conservatives “radicals”.

[kiryandil]

I did Nazi see this coming from Germans.

[Leaning Right]

Will this festival offer classes on how to defend oneself from a Muslim knife attack?

Because that’s something the average German will need to know.

[dfwgator]

“First, they came for the Nazis....”

[Dutch Boy]

It looks like Germany is headed toward the Utopia they desire, just like California. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be what they think it will be.

[nathanbedford]

Will this festival offer classes on how to defend oneself from a Muslim knife attack?

Knife attacks and crime in general are themes consistently being exploited by Frau Weidel, the very impressive and articulate leader of the AFD. It is not a coincidence that this comes at a time when Donald Trump is moving against crime in Washington DC because the AFD platform is perfectly interchangeable with MAGA.

That is the upside. The downside is that the AFD openly wants to trade with Russia and China and exclude American nukes from Europe and reduce or eliminate American military forces in Germany.

One could say there is no daylight between Trump and Weidel on this issue as well.

[Leaning Right]

> “First, they came for the Nazis....” <

Ha! And you’re closer to reality than you might imagine. Because the leftists claim that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is automatically a Nazi.

[rktman]

Surely you meant ‘naughtZee’. 😊👍

[dfwgator]

I was dead serious about it.

[Olog-hai]

As free citizens we believe in direct democracy, the separation of powers, the rule of law, social market economics, subsidiarity, federalism, family values, and German cultural heritage, as democracy and freedom are vested in our cultural values and historical tradition. The recollection of the two revolutions of 1848 and 1989 drive our civil protest and the determination to complete our national unity in freedom, and create a Europe of sovereign and democratic nation states, united in peace, self-determination and good-neighborliness.

— AfD party platform, preamble

Minimum wages and the social market economy are closely connected. Minimum wages adjust the remunerative position of low-income workers as weak market players with respect to the interests of employers as strong market players. They also safeguard low-income workers against wage pressure caused by recent mass-immigration. Minimum wages enable an existence above the poverty line, and at least guarantee a humble pension, which otherwise would have to be paid for by society in the form of state support. Minimum wages thus prevent the privatization of profits while costs are socialized. It is for this reason that the AfD supports the retention of minimum wages.

— IBID., page 35

Not the first time the left has gone after its own.

[AlaskaErik]

The downside is that the AFD openly wants to trade with Russia and China and exclude American nukes from Europe and reduce or eliminate American military forces in Germany.

I'm failing to see any downside. I would love to see us withdraw from NATO and remove all of our troops and nukes from Europe. The EU is leading Europe down the dystopian path to totalitarianism and we need to step aside and let them travel that suicidal path to destruction without us also being dragged down.

[higgmeister]

FYLTGE

[Texas Fossil]

Socialist Germany have not learned a thing. The are still Totalitarian, but they simply hide under socialism. They still hate USA. And we have pampered them since WWII.

If US survives (we will) we must cut off the sugar teat.

Trump is doing exactly that. Like spoiled children they are plotting against Father Trump.

[Menes]

True, but: Please take into account that we need good relationships with all three nations - America, Russia, China.

Germany is on the same landmass as the latter two, thus, we have no ocean Rio protect us - and we don’t really culturally belong to any of them. We are a case apart, culturally, and we should keep our distance.

This does not mean, however, that we should hate each other. Why not envision the future with Germany heeding the advice of George Washington: friendship and trade with every nation, but entangling alliances with none.

However, maybe not too surprising for someone with autism like I am, I myself believe in isolationism. No relations, no conflicts. Furthermore: If we didn’t have to feed the deadbeats EU and the millions of deadbeat invaders and endure their criminal proclivities, everything would be fine, and the national defence would be affordable once more.

But for that, and for a removal of that leftist woke dirt, which has infected my country, we would need an administration which is willing to clean up the entire mess.
They have made a fish soup out of the aquarium which had been the German economy - and, needless to say, it is very difficult to turn a fish soup into an aquarium again. Kudos to our Eastern neighbours for this fitting proverb.🙂

America has truly been blessed by having President Trump, who is doing the very same for his people, which would be needed over here🙂

[Menes]

Sorry , that word „Rio“ was supposed to meant „to“.🙂

[nathanbedford]

Why not envision the future with Germany heeding the advice of George Washington: friendship and trade with every nation, but entangling alliances with none

George's advice is not to be dismissed, friendship and trade are to be almost universally desired, but the advice must be viewed not through the prism of the age of sail but with awareness that we are now in a nuclear age of hypersonic missiles. We are in the age of entangling alliances that cannot be avoided because they are part of the supply chain.

Your point about landmass is very well taken. If China and Russia, combined, attach themselves to Western Europe the splendid isolation of America will be an illusion. The sovereignty of Germany will not even bear mention.

The whole idea of NATO, the idea behind European Union, is that individual nations, like Germany, are vulnerable and nothing in the history of Europe since 1648 contradicts that. In this brand-new page of globe-spanning technology, small nations either find benign, powerful, big allies, or combine to form a defensible unit if they want to survive.

Napoleon once said his preferred enemies were, "allies" because of their internal divisions. But history tells us that his Waterloo came at the hands of allies.

Alliances are necessary, even indispensable, but they must be managed intelligently with George Washington's essential good advice as a core principle for managing affairs in this new age.

[Menes]

Yes, I thank you for correcting me🙂

Sometimes, I still unconsciously think we are still in the age of sailing-ships, thus, I really am too much like the well-known cartoon character of the absent-minded professor😀

That’s when reality kicks in. We Europeans are a company of midgets compared to America or China (Russia is huge in people and land, but not so much in terms of economy).

Still, as several fellow Freepers on this thread have said, they would like to withdraw from Nato and be divorced from Europe. If Americans would like it that way - we Germans have no right at all to stand in their way…

And about Nato and the EU, I think they seemed like a good idea when, after World War Two, the Soviet Union was threatening to expand its power into Western Europe. If you face a common threat (as smaller countries), the worst thing you could do is to squabble. No, you have to face the common threat together, and help your economy expand after the destructive recent conflict. As they say: united we stand, divided we fall.

That’s why the various US administrations from Truman onwards did have sympathy for the EU.

However, the Cold War is over, and the parrots are beginning to jabber, and the old hostilities between the nations of Europe have been unfrozen once more. We Germans have been dealt the worst deck,I think, because we have more neighbors than any other country in Europe, nay, the world. Furthermore, geographical barriers between us and them are nonexistent

(America and Britain are truly blessed in this regard - maybe that’s why Anglo-Saxon conservatism is more libertarian economically than that of continental Europe. There, no outside threat forced a certain degree of „having to share with the poor, for they will be our soldiers, if need arises“ upon the populace).

And it is, sadly, common knowledge that neighbouring nations are hardly ever on good terms with each other.

Thus, I was in favor of isolationism for my country. I even thought that Japan during the Sakoku era would have been my role model. Just not North Korea, for Pete‘s sake 😀

[jmcenanly]

Even though the National Socialists used the same tactics and had the same platform as their detractors do now.