Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD)

The Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (Alter­na­tive für Deutsch­land, AfD) is a right-wing pop­ulist and nation­al-con­ser­v­a­tive polit­i­cal par­ty found­ed in 2013 by a group of econ­o­mists, jour­nal­ists, and for­mer mem­bers of the Chris­t­ian Demo­c­ra­t­ic Union (CDU) in response to dis­sat­is­fac­tion with Chan­cel­lor Angela Merkel’s man­age­ment of the euro­zone cri­sis and her per­ceived lack of alter­na­tives to main­stream poli­cies. Ini­tial­ly posi­tioned as a mod­er­ate­ly Euroscep­tic and eco­nom­i­cal­ly lib­er­al par­ty, AfD’s plat­form shift­ed sig­nif­i­cant­ly fol­low­ing the Euro­pean refugee cri­sis of 2015, adopt­ing increas­ing­ly nation­al­ist and anti-immi­gra­tion posi­tions. The par­ty has since become known for its oppo­si­tion to Islam, skep­ti­cism toward the Euro­pean Union, denial of human-caused cli­mate change, and calls for clos­er ties with Rus­sia. AfD’s rhetoric and pol­i­cy pro­pos­als have led to its clas­si­fi­ca­tion as a far-right par­ty by polit­i­cal observers and, at times, by Ger­man author­i­ties, with sev­er­al of its state branch­es under sur­veil­lance for alleged anti-con­sti­tu­tion­al activ­i­ties. Despite inter­nal divi­sions and lead­er­ship changes, the AfD has grown to become one of the largest oppo­si­tion forces in the Ger­man Bun­destag, reflect­ing broad­er soci­etal ten­sions over immi­gra­tion, iden­ti­ty, and Euro­pean integration.

Ref­er­ences 

• Alter­na­tive for Ger­many – Wikipedia

• BBC: Ger­many’s AfD: How right-wing is nation­al­ist Alter­na­tive for Germany

• Under­stand­ing the Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (AfD) – AGI

• Le Monde: Ger­many’s AfD, a far-right par­ty born 10 years ago now aspires to govern

• The Con­ver­sa­tion: What is the AfD? Ger­many’s far-right par­ty, explained

• Bri­tan­ni­ca: Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (AfD)

• Vox: The dan­ger­ous resur­gence of Ger­many’s far right, explained

• Pew Research Cen­ter: 7 facts about Ger­many’s AfD party