Far Right ‘Alternative for Germany’ Hunts Landmark Victories as Berlin’s Moderates Descend Into Disarray

The hard right Alternative for Germany party appears to be closing in on major electoral victories this fall as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government is undertaking a wide ranging shake up.The AfD is eyeing securing a majority in regional elections at Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to be held in September. That would give it control of a state government for the first time. Polls show the AfD garnering the support of some 28 percent of the population across Germany, up from the 20 percent that it won in the federal election next year. The gathering strength of the AfD puts into sharp relief Mr. Merz’s struggles. Last week the chancellor declared that the “government has found its rhythm, despite some criticism. We have delivered, and we have recognized the dimension of the tasks we face.” Mr. Merz’s coalition is stitched together from the center-right Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats.On Friday Mr. Merz named his health minister, Nina Warken, as his new chief of staff. Reuters reckons that is “intended to inject momentum into his unpopular government.” The move came after the resignation of a powerful Union politician, Jen Spahns, following the disclosure that he and his husband had engaged the services of a gestational surrogate in America — despite his party’s opposition to the practice. Surrogacy is illegal in Germany on pain of prison sentences that can range from three to five years. Mr. Merz’s outgoing chief of staff, Thorsten Frei, will fill Mr. Spahns’s role in the Bundestag. The chancellor indicates that further changes are forthcoming, with Reuters reporting that Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder will soon be out as well. A poll from RTL/ntv Trendbarometer released this week disclosed that only 14 percent of Germans are satisfied with Mr. Merz’s performance over his 15 months in office.Alice Weidel speaks to supporters at the AfD election party on February 23, 2025 at Berlin. Soren Stache – Pool/Getty ImagesThat leaves an opening for the AfD, which is polling at 41 percent at Saxony-Anhalt. Elections are also scheduled for September at Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, another province that was once part of the communist German Democratic Republic. The AfD is at 36 percent there, ahead of any other party. That would put the AfD in position to govern two out of Germany’s 16 federal states — and in a strong position to claim the chancellery in the general election in 2027.The AfD, now the largest opposition party in the Bundestag, was founded in 2013 in opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel. Its name is a rejoinder to her slogan “Alternativlosigkeit,” or “there is no alternative.” The AfD is ahainst immigration and Islam, skeptical of Europe, eager for warmer relations with Moscow, opposed to green energy, and opposed to what its leaders contend is an undue focus on Nazi crimes — especially the genocide of the Jews Earlier this week one of Mr. Merz’s conservative allies, Michael Kretschmer — he serves as the premier of Saxony — told the Handelsblatt newspaper that it is time the chancellor abjured the policy of enforcing a Brandmauer, or “firewall,” whereby “mainstream” parties refuse to work with parties deemed far-right. That policy has been in place since the end of World War II.An AfD candidate, Jens Maier, told a crowd at Dresden in 2017 that “The negation of our own national interests is something that has become a political maxim in Germany since World War II. “I hereby declare this cult of guilt to be over. To be over, once and for all.” A leader of the AfD, Beatrix von Storch, told me last year that her party is not antisemitic and that Jews have more to fear from migrants and the parties of the left, which have seen a resurgence.One party official, though, Björn Höcke, was twice convicted and fined for using a banned Nazi slogan, “Alles für Deutschland,” or “everything for Germany.” That was a slogan so beloved of the Nazi SS that they had it engraved into their daggers. Last year German security services found that the “ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order.” The party is currently led by Alice Weidel. Mr. Krtschemer, who has a front row seat to the AfD’s gathering strength in his state, declares that “anyone who still talks about firewalls hasn’t recognized the signs of the times. We need to talk to anyone who wants to talk.” Mr. Merz tells reporters, though, that “If a far-right party were to enter the government in Germany, it would have a completely different significance than if that were to happen in another country.” He adds that “I will do everything in my power in Germany to prevent it.”A scuffle broke out earlier this week at Berlin at an event marking the 82nd anniversary of a failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler. A great-nephew, Tobias Korenke, of Protestant pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer — hanged by the Third Reich in 1945 — attempted to remove a wreath contributed by the AfD. The memorial marked the attempt by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg to assassinate Hitler in 1944. Mr. Korenke declared that “Many descendants, myself included, feel really great anger when we see AfD laying wreaths here. We will not accept this.”

Far Right ‘Alternative for Germany’ Hunts Landmark Victories as Berlin’s Moderates Descend Into Disarray

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