The AfD and Germany's political split

Germany is divided over the Alternative for Germany, a party that polls first nationally and that every other party refuses to govern with. The AfD wants an end to mass immigration, a looser tie to the European Union, peace with Russia, and a share of power matching its vote. The other parties hold that its idea of who is German breaks the constitution, keep it out of every coalition, and debate banning it.

The wider European dispute: The struggle over power inside the European Union.

Where it stands · September 2026

On 6 September the AfD won the Saxony-Anhalt state election, becoming the strongest party but short of an absolute majority. On 8 September Merz vowed to stay on as CDU leader. On 14 September the CDU won local elections in Lower Saxony, with the AfD third. On 18 September Berlin held a state election with the SPD, AfD and Linke in a close race. On 22 September Merz faced internal pressure after CDU state election losses.

What the dispute is about

Who belongs. The AfD says Germany has taken in more people than it can absorb and that those without a right to stay, and some who have one, should leave. Its opponents say the party's distinction between citizens by descent and "passport Germans" denies the equal dignity the constitution guarantees.

Who may govern. One side holds that a democracy may exclude, watch and if necessary ban a party that would hollow it out. The other holds that excluding the largest party is itself the hollowing out.

Which Germany. Behind both lie the East's grievances since unification, the costs of the energy transition and of the break with Russia, and the question of how much is decided in Brussels.

Each side believes it is defending democracy against the other.

How each side explains it

The AfD's account

The established parties made the large decisions of the past fifteen years without asking: the euro rescues, the open border of 2015, the exit from nuclear power, the sanctions that ended cheap Russian gas. The AfD was founded to say no, and each time the answer was not an argument but a label. The parties have agreed among themselves that a fifth of the voters, and a third in the East, shall never be represented in government, whatever they vote. A domestic intelligence agency that answers to the interior minister has declared the largest opposition party extremist in a report it would not publish, and courts have stopped it. Meanwhile the government has taken over border controls and deportations it called inhuman when the AfD proposed them. East Germans have seen a state watch its opposition before.

In our coverage

Brussels overreaches; nations and voters are right to resist →432 headlines
Covered by:Junge Freiheit · NIUS · Tichys Einblick · Il Giornale · Boulevard Voltaire · Brussels Signal

The firewall parties' account

The Federal Republic was built on the lesson that a democracy can be ended by election. The AfD has moved to the right at every change of leadership, and three of its own former leaders left saying so. Its leading figures speak of a people defined by descent, its Thuringian leader has been fined for using a storm-trooper slogan, its members met activists to discuss the removal of millions including citizens, and staff of its politicians have been convicted or investigated for working for China and Russia. A court has confirmed that the intelligence service may treat it as a suspected extremist case. Refusing coalitions is every party's right; no voter is denied a vote. A state that waits until such a party holds the interior ministries has waited too long.

What each account leaves out

The AfD's leaves out that the Münster court, after a full hearing, confirmed the grounds for suspicion; the fines against Höcke; the convictions around its Europe candidate's office; that no party is owed a coalition; and that its former leaders, not its enemies, first called it radicalised.

The firewall parties' leaves out that the agency judging the AfD reports to a minister of a competing party and never published its findings; that parts of the Potsdam reporting were corrected after court rulings; that the 2015 decision was never put to parliament; that they have since adopted much of what they called extremist in migration policy; and that East Germans, about a fifth of the country, hold about an eighth of its leading posts.

The ledger

The AfD

Wanted: to reverse the immigration, euro and energy decisions and to govern.
Did: built the strongest party in the East and the second, now first, in national polls.
Gained: its migration agenda as government policy; a veto on majorities in several state parliaments.
Paid: no office anywhere; surveillance; a possible ban; the loss of its moderate founders.

The firewall parties

Wanted: to keep the AfD from power until it shrinks.
Did: excluded it, had it watched, moved toward its migration policy.
Gained: every government since 2013.
Paid: coalitions with no shared programme; the AfD's growth from 5 to 30 percent under this strategy; a CDU split between its leadership and its Eastern branches.

Words in dispute

Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.

far-right, right-wing extremist / patriotic, conservative
firewall / cartel of the old parties
remigration / deportation
defensive democracy / abuse of the intelligence service
passport Germans
system parties
confirmed extremist / political persecution

Events per week

Per-week distribution of events. Click a bar to see that week's top events.

Click a week bar to select. Light blue = active week.

Week of Oct 5, 2026(2)

AfD reportedly softens stance on EU and euro exit

1 sourcesOct 5, 2026

Schulze rules out CDU votes for Siegmund