AfD Germany: What the Alternative für Deutschland Is and Why It Matters

Few parties have reshaped a country's political landscape as quickly as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), known in English as the Alternative for Germany. Founded in 2013 as a single-issue protest movement against eurozone bailouts, it has grown into one of the largest parties in Germany and one of the most closely watched political organizations in Europe. Anyone following German news, European Union affairs, or debates over immigration and democracy will encounter the AfD regularly — usually surrounded by strong opinions from every direction.
This article explains where the party came from, what it stands for, how it has evolved, and why its rise matters far beyond Germany's borders.
From Euro-Skeptic Protest Party to Bundestag Force
The AfD was founded in April 2013 in Berlin by a circle of economists, academics, and defectors from established parties. Its best-known founding figure, the economist Bernd Lucke, opposed the bailout programs that Germany and its EU partners had put together for crisis-hit eurozone countries such as Greece. The party argued that the common euro currency was structurally flawed and that Germany needed an "alternative" — hence the name.
In its first test, the 2013 federal election, the AfD won 4.7 percent of the vote, falling just short of the 5 percent threshold required to enter the Bundestag. A year later, it cleared the lower threshold for European elections and won seats in the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg.
At that stage, the AfD was still a relatively conventional, market-liberal, euro-critical party. That changed dramatically within two years.
The Pivot After 2015
In the summer of 2015, at the height of the refugee crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government allowed large numbers of asylum seekers to enter Germany. The AfD redirected its entire political identity toward immigration. At a party congress in Essen in July 2015, Frauke Petry defeated Bernd Lucke for the leadership. Lucke and many of his moderate supporters left and founded a small liberal-conservative party, while the AfD moved sharply to the right.
Immigration, Islam, national identity, and criticism of the political establishment became the party's defining themes. This repositioning paid off at the ballot box. In the 2017 federal election, the AfD won 12.6 percent, becoming the third-largest group in the Bundestag — its first entry into the national parliament. Over the following years it also won seats in all sixteen German state parliaments.
After a dip to about 10 percent in the 2021 federal election, the party's support climbed again. In the 2024 European Parliament election it took roughly 16 percent, finishing second behind the Christian Democrats. In September 2024 it won a state election in Thuringia with about a third of the vote — the first time it finished first anywhere in Germany — and came a close second in Saxony and Brandenburg. In the federal election of February 2025, it reached roughly 21 percent, becoming the second-largest force in the Bundestag and the strongest party across the five eastern states, though no other party was willing to govern with it.
What the AfD Stands For
The AfD's program and rhetoric cover a broad range of issues, but several positions define the party:
Immigration is its central issue. The AfD calls for strict limits on asylum, permanent border controls, faster deportations, and a fundamental restriction of the right to asylum. Its party program states that Islam does not belong to Germany.
Europe and the euro were its founding issues. Today the party rejects further EU integration, opposes common European debt, and demands a fundamental reform of the union. Although leaving the EU is not official policy, individual politicians have floated the idea.
Social and cultural questions place the party firmly in the national-conservative camp. It opposed the 2017 legalization of same-sex marriage, campaigns against gender-inclusive language, and presents itself as a defender of traditional family values and of free speech as it defines it.
Climate policy is another point of sharp disagreement with the mainstream. The AfD rejects German and EU climate targets as economically damaging, questions the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, and defends coal regions and combustion-engine vehicles.
Foreign policy has shifted noticeably. The party opposed weapons deliveries to Ukraine after Russia's 2022 invasion, calls for negotiations with Moscow, and criticizes sanctions on Russia. Several members' past ties to Russia have drawn sustained criticism.
Its economic policy has also evolved. The party began as market-liberal but now combines skepticism toward taxes and regulation with promises to shield German workers' pensions and welfare benefits — a stance researchers often describe as welfare chauvinism.
Internal Divisions and Leading Figures
The AfD has long contained competing wings. Its most radical current formed around Björn Höcke, the party's leader in Thuringia, whose speeches have repeatedly triggered legal and political controversy. The informal network known as "Der Flügel" (the Wing), associated with Höcke, was classified as confirmed right-wing extremist by Germany's domestic intelligence service in 2020 and was formally dissolved shortly afterward.
The party's moderate wing has largely faded. Jörg Meuthen, a co-leader who spent years trying to restrain the radical faction, resigned and left the party in 2022. Since 2019, the AfD has been led by the duo of Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla; Weidel served as the party's candidate for chancellor in the 2025 federal election.
Surveillance, Court Cases, and Controversies
No major party in postwar Germany has faced as much scrutiny from the state and the courts.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, placed the entire AfD under observation as a "suspected right-wing extremist" case in 2021. Several state branches — including in Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt — have been classified as confirmed right-wing extremist, a more serious category. The party challenged the classification in court, and in 2024 an administrative court in Cologne upheld the "suspected case" status. In May 2025, the federal office went a step further by announcing it now considered the whole party confirmed right-wing extremist, while immediately putting the practical consequences on hold pending judicial review. The AfD rejects all of these labels and describes the surveillance as politically motivated.
The party has also been shaken by scandals. In January 2024, the investigative outlet Correctiv reported that AfD politicians had attended a November 2023 meeting near Potsdam at which participants, including known extremists, discussed plans for the mass deportation of people with foreign backgrounds — a concept the far right calls "remigration." The revelations triggered weeks of demonstrations across Germany, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in one of the largest protest waves in the country's postwar history.
Björn Höcke was convicted in 2024 of using the banned Nazi slogan "Alles für Deutschland" at a campaign event and fined. In the same year, an employee of AfD member of the European Parliament Maximilian Krah was arrested on suspicion of spying for China, adding to concerns about foreign influence around the party.
Calls to ban the AfD under Germany's constitution — which allows the prohibition of parties that seek to abolish the democratic order — have grown louder, particularly after the 2025 classification. So far, however, the Bundestag has declined to open formal ban proceedings, and most constitutional lawyers consider the legal bar extremely high.
The "Firewall" and Its Consequences
All of Germany's mainstream parties — the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Liberals, and the Left — have ruled out cooperation or coalition with the AfD, a stance known as the "Brandmauer" (firewall). This means the party wields influence through opposition, agenda-setting, and pressure rather than through governing.
The firewall has real consequences. In states where the AfD came first or second in 2024, governments had to be formed as minority administrations or unusual coalitions; in Thuringia, the Christian Democrats now lead a minority government despite the AfD's first-place finish. The wall has also shown signs of strain: in early 2025, migration-related motions in the Bundestag passed only because AfD lawmakers voted in favor, provoking fierce debate about whether mainstream parties were normalizing cooperation with the far right.
Common Questions About the AfD
Is the AfD far-right? Germany's domestic intelligence service classifies parts of the party — and, as of 2025, argues the whole party — as right-wing extremist to varying legal degrees. Political scientists typically describe it as a right-wing populist to radical-right party. The AfD itself rejects these characterizations and presents its positions as legitimate patriotic opposition.
Who leads the AfD? Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have served as co-leaders since 2019.
Is the AfD banned? No. The party holds seats in the Bundestag, most state parliaments, and the European Parliament, and it remains fully legal while under intelligence observation.
Why is the AfD strongest in eastern Germany? Analysts point to a combination of factors: the economic and social disruptions that followed reunification, comparatively low trust in political institutions, demographic decline, anxieties over migration, and decades of dominance by the same established parties. The party also polls strongly among younger male voters and previous non-voters.
Could the AfD enter government? Under current conditions, no mainstream party would join a coalition with it. But with more than a fifth of the national vote, the party shapes the political agenda regardless — particularly on migration, where other parties have moved toward tougher policies.
Why It Matters Beyond Germany
Germany is the European Union's largest member state, and a party holding its second-largest bloc of seats inevitably influences European debates on migration, enlargement, support for Ukraine, and the future of the union itself. The AfD's rise has also become a reference point in a broader European conversation about how established democracies should respond to radical challengers — whether through confrontation, containment, or policy accommodation. Whichever direction German politics takes in the coming years, the story of the AfD will remain central to understanding it.