Posted on 07/11/2025 7:57:10 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Last weekend, Germany's far-right lawmakers vowed to dress smartly, minimise parliamentary cat-calling, and signed up to a short manifesto notably omitting a call for repatriation of some immigrants that helped fuel their February election success.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is trying a tactical pivot away from the mix of attention-grabbing shock policies and provocative rowdiness that helped it become the second-largest parliamentary party, in a bid to go more mainstream and translate popularity into power, political commentators and a party insider said.
Being the largest opposition party has conferred privileges like being able to respond first to the government in parliament, but in Germany power comes from being in coalitions, and every other party rules out governing with the AfD.
Other parties have also prevented it from taking key positions on parliamentary committees as calls grow across the political spectrum for a ban on the AfD on account of its extremism.
So far, conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz has opposed such a ban, which must be requested by either house of parliament or the government, and then examined by the Constitutional Court. The court has only banned a party twice in 1952 and 1956.
A senior party official who declined to be named said the new rules were all about "professionalising" the party - although some, especially founding figures in the party's eastern heartlands who are not members of the national parliament, oppose changing a successful formula.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Broken promises.
I suspect that the AfD is just fooling themselves. The German Deep State will never accept them. Perhaps it would be better to go down swinging. 🥊
It would be interesting to hear from some Freepers in Germany about this. Would a kindler, gentler AfD have any chance?
“far right”: Germans opposed to globohomo
Globohomo” is a derogatory term used primarily by far-right groups, combining “global” and “homogenization,” to describe an alleged conspiracy that promotes a uniform global culture, often associated with anti-LGBTQ and anti-Semitic sentiments. It suggests that media and corporate elites are working to undermine traditional values and cultures.
See the screwy logic? They admit what they are doing, and then smear anyone opposed to their agenda as “far right” “antisemites” and “homophobes”.
Yep and that’s why I use that term quite often and consider the people that dislike it my enemies
I’ve never seen Reuters tell us exactly what makes them “far-right”.
Trotsky would have been “far right” by modern German standards.
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