Free Republic

In the United States, if Americans know anything about the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, it’s that the AfD are a bunch of Nazi-adjacent hooligans who threaten to return Germany to Hitlerism. They know this because that’s what the American media tell them. Very few will bother to go online to find the English-language version of AfD’s party platform. If they did, they would find a wealth of common sense, and proposals that sound like ordinary GOP positions, even before the Trumpening of the Republican Party. It’s the same thing in Europe, of course. In her speech last week at...

Parties opposed to the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) continue to block it from exercising its rights—all in the name of stopping “fascism.”Germany’s self-proclaimed democracy defenders are at it again: blocking a law-abiding party from exercising its rights—all in the name of protecting democracy. The Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), a pro-free market, anti-EU, anti-mass migration party, placed second in Germany’s recent parliamentary elections, earning nearly 21 percent of the vote to the top vote-getter’s, the Christian Democratic Union’s, 28 percent. The AfD placed well ahead of the once-dominant Social Democratic Party (16 percent) and the Greens (11 percent).By longstanding tradition, the...

Top spy agency withdraws “extremist” label on AfD political party in widening scandal Last week, the German government officially designated the opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a “confirmed extremist” organization. The announcement came from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, and was endorsed by outgoing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who claimed the party posed a fundamental threat to democracy. The designation opened the door to enhanced surveillance, undercover infiltration, and a potential party ban. But Faeser provided no evidence to the public, just a press release about the 1,100-page report.

The entire super secret, 1100+ page report has been leaked to numerous media sources in Germany. I can now report the bombshell findings of months of exhaustive investigative research, snooping, and spying by the finest agents available in the German intelligence community and democracy protection racket. The repercussions of this incendiary, voluminous tome could be characterized as... I'm not kidding. The German police state and ruling junta have completely beclowned themselves. The document produced by the constitutional protection agency (BfV) and used as justification for declaring the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party a 'right-wing extremist' group - which enabled...

Just a hair over a week ago (ten days to be exact), an official arm of the German government declared the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party - now polling as Germany's most popular party in the country - a 'right-wing extremist' group. Yeah, right - so big deal, no? I mean, they've been calling them that forever. Actually, it was a big deal. It made the epithet an official label, opening the party and every last one of its members to constant, sanctioned (instead of surreptitious) government surveillance. It was also the first necessary step in the process of...

A German spy agency deems the party a threat to the “democratic order,” but voters say otherwise—should they be silenced, too? Alice Weidel may get the last laugh yet. The co-leader of Germany’s most popular party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), was visibly amused on Tuesday morning when Friedrich Merz, the head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), lost the first vote for the Bundestag’s next chancellorship. Never before in German history had a presumptive chancellor been rejected in an initial ballot. But 18 members of Merz’s 328-member governing coalition had bolted and cast their secret votes against him. That...

Germany faces criticism from all directions for its authoritarian actions against the country's largest opposition party ... The German government appears to be seriously preparing for a ban of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party after the country’s powerful domestic spy agency classified the party as “definitely right-wing extremist.” Now, world leaders are reacting to the classification, with Hungarian Prime Minister saying he backs the party and its co-leader Alice Weidel. After the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) gave the AfD its new designation, which paves the way for a ban of the entire party, Orbán asked...

Germany's conservative leader Friedrich Merz narrowly lost a vote in the Bundestag to become the next chancellor in an unexpected setback that plunges Europe's largest economy into political uncertainty. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which finished second in the most recent election, demanded fresh elections after Merz's loss, the first time in German history that a chancellor-designate has failed to win in the first round of voting.

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has designated AfD as a right-wing extremist organisation, citing xenophobic stances as the reason. Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Friday designated the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a right-wing extremist organisation that poses a threat to democracy and the constitutional order. The office, also known as BvF, cited the AfD’s xenophobic stances on ethnicity as the reason for the decision, stating the party was being discriminatory towards non-ethnic Germans. According to the statement released on Friday, the office's experts have examined whether the AfD's...

Seriously, what is the point of defending Europe? Well, maybe to defend the Louvre and some monuments to a once-great culture? I can't think of many other reasons, now that the continent has descended once-again into the 1930s-style of fascism (no, not the Nazis of the late thirties and 40s, but more Mussolini-style fascism). Elections are being canceled, censorship is running amok, people are getting arrested for speaking, and now the most popular party in Germany is on the edge of getting banned because it threatens the power of the German elite. There is no doubt that the AfD is,...

Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been designated as right-wing extremist by the country's federal office for the protection of the constitution. "The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order," the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement. The AfD came second in federal elections in February, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote. The parliament, or Bundestag, will hold a vote next week to confirm conservative leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor, heading a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats. The...

What a difference a couple of months of lies and betrayals make. Two days ago, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, led by Alice Weidel, was in a statistical tie with Chancellor-Elect Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU). AfD was, however, still iced out of any government participation, even as Merz lied and finagled his way in efforts to form a coalition government with anyone but them. The German public, watching Merz's negotiations go down, their votes for change cast aside in the frenzied deal making, and their few remaining freedoms cast to the wind, had an almost instantaneous case of...

AfD and CDU continue tied at 24.5

Six weeks after voters in Germany went to the polls for the federal elections, there appears to be growing dissatisfaction with the outcome, as more Germans shift their support to the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. According to the latest survey from Insa on behalf of the Bild newspaper, the AfD has soared to a record 24 per cent support. This puts the upstart party on par with the election-winning ‘Union’ of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), which collectively also now stand at 24 per cent in support.

Germany’s likely new coalition government, expected to be formed between the conservatives (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), is planning a law that could effectively ban politicians deemed ‘unpleasant’ or ‘populist’ from standing for election. A draft coalition paper, presented to the press last week, proposes a significant tightening of the country’s already repressive ‘incitement of the masses’ law. Under the proposal, politicians convicted more than once under the law would no longer be allowed to stand as a party candidate. Germany’s law against incitement of the masses (Section 130 of the Criminal Code) has long been a tool to...

The EU Parliament has lifted the immunity of AfD foreign policy spokesman Petr Bystron because he shared a photo of Angela Merkel on Twitter in 2022. The reason? Bizarre: since Merkel is seen raising her arm in the image, it’s being interpreted as a Nazi salute – but only because Bystron posted it. Prosecutor: Waving is not a Nazi salute This farce has a backstory: In 2022, during a protest against COVID-19 measures, Bystron waved to the crowd. The public prosecutor immediately launched an investigation: “Nazi salute!” In response, hundreds of AfD supporters filed complaints against Angela Merkel, who had...

As an openly gay politician who lives with her Sri Lanka-born partner in Switzerland, Alice Weidel was an unusual choice to many to lead Germany’s far-right AfD into Sunday’s elections, where it scored its best-ever result. To her legions of political foes, Weidel serves as a “fig leaf” for a party that has railed against asylum seekers, Islam and multiculturalism and some of whose top figures have voiced revisionist views on Germany’s Nazi past. On Sunday the 46-year-old, who says Margaret Thatcher is her political idol, led the Moscow-friendly AfD to a record result of around 20 percent. She told...

That German election? As I wrote last August: Here is an all too typical Euro-headline: 'Tens of thousands demonstrate against AfD after stabbings in Solingen' Gotta love the commitment of the diversity lemmings. Even as they're on the ground punctured by multiple stab wounds, they'll be fretting that the amount of their blood all over the sidewalk risks provoking even more 'Islamophobia' from the 'far right'. So yes, the AfD had a good night, coming second and doubling their share of the vote to a smidgeonette under twenty-one per cent. But the remaining seventy-nine per cent voted to keep stabbing...

The far-right populist AfD has emerged as the second strongest political force in Germany's election. Despite its success — and support from Elon Musk and JD Vance — it has no chance of participating in government. It is a historic result for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD): just twelve years after the party was founded, it has become the second largest political force in Germany. With around 20% of the vote, it almost doubled its result from the last general election in 2021. In eastern Germany, it has even become the strongest political force. On election night, the AfD...

BERLIN (AP) — Exit polls show opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s conservatives leading in Germany’s national election. They indicate that Alternative for Germany is heading for the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II. The exit polls for ARD and ZDF public television show Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats on track for their worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election, and expected to be in third place. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. BERLIN (AP) — German voters are choosing a new government in an election Sunday dominated by worries about...