[Moltke]

To my eye, it seems like “National Socialist” would be a more accurate label for the AfD.

Please point out the AfD's socialist positions.

[ek_hornbeck]

Attacking the AfD and other European nationalism parties as "socialist" provides good cover to establishment Republicans who oppose nationalism and immigration restriction.

The fact is that no party in Europe wants to completely privatize everything or eliminate the welfare state, so this is a non-debate. The choice is between a welfare state with open borders vs. a welfare state with border security. Only the latter gets attacked as "socialist" by doctrinaire Libertarians or by neoconservatives in the US, because they're actually more offended by immigration restriction than by the socialism.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Please point out the AfD’s socialist positions.”

I was generally referring to the false narrative that ANY political party in Europe is “right wing,” especially when compared to the American definition of that term.

As far as I know, no AfD candidate has campaigned to revoke the cradle-to-grave German welfare state, or to revoke the century-long “corporatist” alliance between government, business, and labor, or to revoke Germany's pacifist and tyrant-friendly foreign policy.

However, I certainly agree that the AfD founding principles were Conservative - no bail outs for poorly governed Euro nations, and no low skill culturally maladjusted immigrants.

Unfortunately, AfD’s sudden surge in popularity seems to have been fueled by a large bloc of possibly anti-Jew and anti-Israel voters, and by a large bloc of East German anarchists.

In case you haven't heard, Frauke Petry, who appeared to be AfD’s most Conservative leader, resigned from AfD today.