Germans go to the polls this Sunday and the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is projected to win about 20 per cent of the vote — roughly double its tally at the 2021 federal election. The AfD’s strength is in itself cause for concern, although the prospect of a government that includes the far right (as in Finland, Italy and the Netherlands) or is tolerated by it (as in Sweden) is still remote. And while 20 per cent may sound like an awful lot, the AfD will almost certainly not become the strongest party in the German Bundestag (whereas far-right parties topped the polls in Italy in 2022, the Netherlands in 2023 and Austria last year).
Adding to the concern, however, are two developments. When the Christian Democrats tabled a parliamentary resolution on 29 January demanding measures to curtail asylum migration it was passed only because the AfD voted in favour. This was a first in postwar Germany. With the Christian Democrats having adopted key planks of the AfD’s proposed migration and asylum policies, a future Christian Democrat-led government might rely again on the AfD’s support to pass legislation.
The other development is Donald Trump’s recent return to the White House. His stance on issues such as migration and the war in Ukraine is very close to that of the AfD. Both his vice-president J.D. Vance and his de facto co-president Elon Musk — yes, the guy who recently gave the Hitler salute — have intervened in the German election campaign in support of the AfD.
Against that background, Germany’s best-known and most controversial comedian, the journalist, television host and film producer Jan Böhmermann, recorded this video for the New York Times.
— Klaus Neumann
Watch “The Far Right is Rising in the Land of ‘Never Again’” at the New York Times
