In Italy voters have been electing one party after the other without consistency for the last several elections, which I would use as a point to general desperation and not feeling represented.
I would like to know how many other countries have a similar attitude, like "let's try these ones, we have not voted them yet so maybe this time it's better"
You have to always remember that about half the population has an IQ under 100.
And that the <100 half is much easier to herd.
The won because people think complex problems have simple, untried solutions that are common sense. They hate "them", they're stoked on (social) media. They feel put upon and denied their rewards. Same old, same old with more effective communication paths.
FT has had a few articles about it recently, here is one about a historical vote at the G20 summit. https://www.ft.com/content/dcefdf76-9bac-4b34-80c2-eab80b559...
Heck, AfDs own platform argues there should be more Russian language in the schools and Russian cooperation across the board. That on its face says an awful lot.
Caldwell systematically elides the völkisch-nationalist character of the AfD and their adjacency to neo-Nazism. He underplays Höcke's extremism, ignores the Potsdam meeting, and leads us to believe (falsely) that the identification of the AfD as rechtsextrem was somehow a biased political stunt. It wasn't, there is plenty of backing for the classification, and it would not have been undemocratic to apply the Verfassungschutz and ban them permanently.
edit: typo
I looked up the Potsdam meeting you mentioned and there were literally members of CDU (Merkel's party) present as well. It's utterly laughable to try and use that to then exclusively castigate a different political party for having had some of its members present. By your illogic, we would be forced to infer that the CDU is also "extremist".
So far, I'm left feeling like AfD has indeed been misrepresented by the liberal western media. And, I say this as someone who certainly does not agree with some of their positions. For example, being "skeptical" about climate change in 2026 is sheer idiocy.
But what is very clear to me is that Germany has a democracy problem. The system as described has not been truly democratic. It instead sounds approximately 'left-leaning authoritarian', right down to your insinuation that a political party should have been banned for its speech.
In case anyone in Germany is interested in rediscovering democracy, please note that THIS is what it looks like: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
I find the vociferousness with which clueless Americans have decided to defend the AfD bizarre. You don't know the political context, you clearly don't know the history, but you've decided that "Germany has a democracy problem." Why are you so entitled to an opinion?
I can't believe you're still insisting on this complete straw man. AfD's stated position on immigration is very easy to look up and it's NOT this. At all. You are parroting a leftwing lie.
They want to deport undocumented migrants and remigrate certain refugee groups, such as Ukrainians. You're free to disagree with that position, but lying about it and then descending into such an absurdly histrionic spiral over the matter does your argument absolutely no favors. That only supports what people like Caldwell are saying and, ironically, precisely bolsters AfD's argument about suppression of the discourse and an honest discussion of Germany's problems.
In fact, you've offered a perfect demonstration of what Caldwell covered in the first section of this very essay.
> you clearly don't know the history
Are you seriously trying to imply I'm not aware of the Holocaust?
>I'm not German and knew little of this subject
Yet now you know their party stance by heart and come to their rescue? That is Sus, with a capital S.
>They want to deport undocumented migrants and remigrate certain refugee groups, such as Ukrainians.
This is not what they really want, is it now? They also want to deport Germans with attained citizenship. It's what they said out loud. There are records of this. Anything else is
>parroting a
right wing
>lie.
It's what who said aloud? When and where? At the referenced Potsdam meeting where certain extremist CDU politicians did the same?
If I judged Democrats in the US by what their most extreme members have said, I would have to assume a vote for them would be a vote to end private property. But I don't assume that, because I'm not a moron.
So, show me a trusted source that argues a plurality of mainstream AfD politicians are claiming they want to deport German citizens. Show me where this is the official policy of the party. I see no good source to support that accusation.
And that's likely because it is in fact what it appears to be: a desperate smear campaign generated by extremists arrayed at the opposing political polarity. And it's also apparently failing since large percentages of the German population are moving the other way.
This is entirely reminiscent of the foolishness that sunk the Democrats in the US and put us in the mess we now find ourselves in. "Why moderate our policy stances when we can just call them bigots and Nazis instead?"
I expect the outcome of this strategy will be much the same in Germany.
This has not led to positive outcomes currently in the US.
I agree with it in theory, I truly do. I think it also gets used as a tool for politicians, companies, and governments to say unhinged shit not based in fact to drive emotional reactions that actually hurts other people in various ways.
I can't disagree. But, paraphrasing Churchill, (true) democracy is indeed 'the worst form of government except for all the others.'
And Americans will be given opportunities to remedy their mistakes. Both this year and especially in 2028.
We might find that MAGA having the freedom to speak their mind will turn enough of the electorate against them. Or we will continue to choose poorly and suffer the consequences.
But those consequences will have been arrived at honestly. And that matters.
The problem with that is that Republican voters will not be the first, and certainly not the only, people to experience those consequences. Nor will they be the ones to suffer the majority, and especially not the worst, of them.
The electorate at large eventually learning their lesson is cold comfort to anyone that warned of this, and suffered regardless
Since Covid times every other political parties in Germany seems to be under the impression that they are somehow holier and knows what is best for the people and what people wants doesn’t matter and the politicians decide what people deserves. The pinnacle of this is the current Chancellor of Germany which is arrogant, completely broke his election promises and keep on pushing the voters that are in the centre right or centre left towards the respective extremism.
Another important factor is the current German economy. When the economy was somewhat in good shape after Merkle’s government people mainly voted for the Greens whose main agenda is climate change back in 2021 because people had good living standards and they could afford to focus on solving world problems. But the current economy is imploding and a lot of people are losing their well paid jobs and no other party seems to be even talking about it except for AfD and somehow the current government is under the delusion that economy is doing far better than they have thought. This again is a reason for a lot of people to vote for AfD.
Last but not least is the Islamic extreme/terrorist attacks that happened past years. There have been multiple incidents of cars been driven into crowd including in Christmas markets and latest attack in the Gay pride in Berlin this year. That has been used by AfD to emphasise the incompetence of the current and previous governments to ensure the internal security of the country to gain even more votes
Euro is a ticking time bomb and the currency would collapse when France cannot pay its debt anymore. They are literally borrowing money to pay pension and the only way the Euro has survived so far is due to the fiscal discipline of Germany. The lenders trust Germany to keep Euro stable and that has been weakened by the current government when they borrowed more than half a trillion Euros.
>I face people are taking home even less money due to the increased social contributions imposed by this government.
You face what? Anyways, the only thing they did was raising the ceiling for contributions which has no effect on low and middle incomes, which you seem to care a lot about.
>Euro is a ticking time bomb and the currency would collapse when France cannot pay its debt anymore
France is not going to default anytime soon.
Weidel is of course living the woke WEF lifestyle in Switzerland with her Sri Lankan lesbian partner and was at Goldman Sachs.
So a betrayal of the voters, Meloni or Trump style is very likely if the AfD should manage to have the federal majority.
This is probably the case of both things being true at the same time.
unfortunately we are deep into the TikTok times, and simple, but catchy ideas dominate. it's flat Earth, QAnon, anti-vax, anti-economics but now in 4K.
Of course, it's not just the support by various enemies of Europe and Germany, there are many factors like always. In this particular case there are also historical reasons for the rise of Neonazism in parts of the former GDR and many other former East Bloc countries. I don't want to go into the details, everybody knows that story, but it's worth noting the Skinnheads Sächsische Schweiz of the 90s are now the fathers of young voters and particularly few things had been done against this trend in Saxony. When you allow Neonazi movements to become a major youth culture, you're bound to get serious problems. Since the AfD has absorbed the NPD, it's just the political arm of a vast movement there.
"They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats."
Or did they just lie out of their ass and leave everyone worse off?
This, but I guess I should've been more clear in my parent comment in saying that by "addressing" should come in heavy quotation marks.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/a-boring-theory-of-the-populist...
without convincing the people (winning their hearts and minds, and so on) it'll continue to be a profitable political strategy, unfortunately
Do you know where extreme-right is low ? in Danemark. You know why ?
because the SOCIALIST PARTY implemented the end / started being tough ob illegal immigration.
it never was about anything else than the majority of people tired of being force-fed immigration by european elites
solve this issue, solve "extreme right"
and it was the same in the US
at that point people not seeing this are mentally ill in my opinion
Anyone can join a party and make it look bad, if they bring their friends even doubly so.
Not to mention that a honest discussion about Israeli war crimes, their government and its members, and finally settlements is long overdue in german society.
> Anyone can join a party and make it look bad, if they bring their friends even doubly so.
That’s funny because then people can say the same thing about AfD as well. Like they are bad people unwanted people joined AfD to make it look bad just like they do for the left party.
>That’s funny because then people can say the same thing about AfD as well. Like they are bad people unwanted people joined AfD to make it look bad just like they do for the left party.
Not really, no. At the beginning when they were small, maybe. But the difference is that the left is distancing from antisemitism while the AfD is not and will never distance themselves from racism.
It may be that in the US we now have a bit of an advantage at stopping the slide to the extreme right wing. The advantage being the total incompetence of the Trump administration which is now become obvious even to those outside of the left-leaning bubbles. His approval ratings are now right around 33% which is really quite abysmal for a president at this point in their 2nd term.
It comes down to ignoring voters will drive them to people who don’t ignore them.
- claim that AfD only represents a tiny minority of "bad faith actors" who "threaten democracy"
- 4-5 direct Hitler comparisons.
- "Even though we all said Never Again!"
- "Hate has returned."
- "...fueled by conspiracy theories and Elon Musk"
- "white mediocrity", "festering undercurrent", "non-college educated white men"
- "If we don't arrest and jail the AfD, Putin will get elected."
https://www.reuters.com/business/germanys-rwi-institute-upgr...
(And they are quite distinguishable. The far right is way worse at it than the kind of left party that wins anything.)
“Democracy always works” has been shown to be objectively false, and so I’m unsure how we can say it is an optimal governance system. Works sometimes, but sometimes it doesn’t. Can we tolerate the failure modes until reversion to the mean? Depends on your tolerance for the costs.
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/06/afd-saxony-anhalt-germany-f...
> Why it matters: Germany rebuilt its democracy after Nazi rule with unusually strong safeguards against extremism. AfD's breakthrough shows those barriers aren't stopping Europe's far right from becoming dominant electoral forces.
> Context: Germany's postwar system was built in the shadow of the Nazis' destruction of the democratic Weimar Republic.
> The 1949 Basic Law embraces the concept of a "militant democracy" to defend against movements that seek to abolish the constitutional order.
Citation needed, never heard this said by anybody.
"democracy" is a wide, wide thing. Technically Russia is a democracy. Also in Europe democracies' presidents don't have the same level of power as Trump, and are more limited.
Democracies only work as long as the people are smart, invested, informed and politicians are accountable and changed often to avoid concentration of power.
Bureaucracy is hell, until you realize it's a feature since it complicates power grabs.
Even Churchill said "democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others", so I really have no idea where you got the "it always works" from.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1519735033950470144/photo/1?
the topics have different emphasis than in the US, but the principle remains. immigration, de-industrialization, green politics, erosion of trust based society
IMO they explain it well here:
Inside The Rise of Germany's New Far-Right
My impression is that the overton window has gone further and further to the right so chacun voit midi à sa porte
The AfD literally published a manifesto of new and notably more conservative policy goals in 2017.
They do not claim to have the political stance of Germany 25 years ago, they themselves say that they are something new (For example, point 1 is an adoption of Swiss-style direct democracy, which is a notable shift to the right).
I encourage you to think much more deeply than "I saw this meme and it resonated with me," because the same is true of the American Tight, despite Elon's claim (Regan, for example, was very famously against Tariffing Canada).
Since when did direct democracy became a right wing concept?
Woke 1.0 was 'crazy' indeed, good that this can now be said. The successor will probably be just as crazy but in some different way. It most likely will be some throwback to classical marxist tropes instead of the intersectional mess which best describes 'Woke 1.0' because younger generations never experienced the reality of the Soviet bloc, never were taught the reality of life under communism in school and as such are easy targets for socialist propaganda, viz. the success of the DSA. This time it will surely work, people, real socialism has never been tried after all...
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/15/aoc-wo...