The Jerusalem Post - Israel News

Alternative for Germany (AfD) party

Germany's new challenges 80 years after VE day: AfD, antisemitism, and new politics

EUROPE AFFAIRS: The political climate in Germany is shifting as the AfD rises in power, raising concerns about the future of Holocaust memory and the country’s commitment to Shoah remembrance.

|ByKONSTANTIN NOWOTNY
‘YOU CAN’T ban 10 million AfD voters.’ Amid the tensions in Germany over the rise of the far right, new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stands at the Neue Wache Memorial for Victims of War and Tyranny during commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel looks on, as she and AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla (not pictured) give a statement, in Berlin, Germany, March 12, 2025.

German spy agency pauses 'extremist' classification for AfD party, local court says

The BfV won't refer to the AfD as a "right-wing extremist movement" until the court ruleson an AfD motion to issue a temporary injunction.

|ByREUTERS
Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla give a statement in Berlin, Germany. March 12, 2025.

AfD files lawsuit against German spy agency's extremist classification

The extremist classification allows the spy agency to step up monitoring of the AfD, for example, by recruiting informants and intercepting party communications.

|ByREUTERS
A supporter of Alternative for Germany (AfD) party does a Hitler salute during a protest against the government in Berlin, Germany.

German spy agency ranks far-right AfD 'extremist'

The status should make it easier for authorities to use secret methods to monitor the party.

|ByREUTERS

German parties form gov't that excludes AfD, far-right party that worries many Jews

AfD will not be part of Germany's government, despite coming in second during national elections earlier this year.

APRIL 9, 2025
ByPHILISSA CRAMER/JTA
ROBERT SESSELMANN of the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a vote last Sunday to become a district leader, a breakthrough for the party which has hit record highs in national polls.

Germany’s political shift: Why the real threat isn’t the far Right – opinion

Voters in Germany are rejecting a left-wing movement that has lost its moral compass.

MARCH 2, 2025
ByGREGORY LYAKHOV
Co-leader of The Left (Die Linke) party Heidi Reichinnek speaks to the media, next to the Leader of The Left Group in the Bundestag Soeren Pellmann, on the day of their parliamentary fraction meeting following the German general elections in Berlin, Germany, February 25, 2025.

Where will Merz take Germany after electoral victory? - analysis

For Merz, depending on the support of the AfD will be far too risky.

FEBRUARY 23, 2025
German conservative candidate for chancellor and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz reacts after the exit poll results are announced for the 2025 general election, in Berlin, Germany, February 23, 2025.

Vance faces backlash in Munich for defending Germany’s far Right AfD - opinion

Vance had met on Friday with the leader of AfD, after endorsing the party as a political partner, a stance Berlin dismissed as 'unwelcome election interference.'

FEBRUARY 20, 2025
US VICE President JD Vance delivers a speech at the Munich Security Conference last week. He took the opportunity to tell the audience that in a democratic society, no party should be ostracized. He also met with the leader of the AfD after endorsing the party as a political partner the writer notes

Russian-linked bots sow fear, distrust ahead of German vote, researchers find

Cyber experts warn that Russian bots are flooding social media with fake terror threats ahead of Germany’s election.

FEBRUARY 12, 2025
ByREUTERS
People attend an election campaign event of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Heidenheim, Germany, February 9, 2025.

Friedrich Merz: The German leader trying to bury Angela Merkel’s legacy - analysis

Friedrich Merz broke a political taboo by aligning with the AfD on immigration, winning a symbolic vote but facing backlash and a major legislative defeat.

FEBRUARY 2, 2025
German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz speaks during a session of the lower house of parliament Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, October 10, 2024.

'This is insane s***': Bill Gates denounces Elon Musk's interference in international politics

YouGov found that 73% of Germans and 69% of Brits surveyed found it unacceptable that Musk was trying to influence politics in their nation.

JANUARY 29, 2025
American businessman Bill Gates listens during the “Accelerating Clean Technology Innovation and Deployment” event during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, November 2, 2021.

German AfD politicians meet militant neo-Nazis in Switzerland

An event near Zurich in mid-December at which two AfD politicians spoke was organized by the Swiss neo-Nazi group Junge Tat and attended by members of Blood & Honour.

DECEMBER 31, 2024
Junge Tat

JD Vance appears to defend Germany’s far-right AfD party

Vance seemed to back the flagship policy of a party that has unsettled Germany’s Jews.  

DECEMBER 23, 2024
ByRON KAMPEAS/JTA
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance on the day of the debate between Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. September 10, 2024. REUTER

‘Only the AfD can save Germany’: Elon Musk endorses far-right German party

Since Musk bought the social network X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, his statements and associations with ideas and figures promoting antisemitic rhetoric have rattled Jewish communal watchdogs.

DECEMBER 20, 2024
ByRON KAMPEAS/JTA
Elon Musk and the Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) (illustrative).

Far-right activists, AfD politicians slam proposal for new youth wing ahead of German elections

Many are rallying behind an organization that does not just operate as the AfD’s youth wing but also serves as a bridge between the parliamentary far-right and neo-Nazis.

DECEMBER 8, 2024
AfD members sit in voting booths on the day of the European election assembly 2023 of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Magdeburg, Germany, July 29, 2023.