User:Lacunae/17

Alternative for Germany

genesis to party to that of early UKIP under Alan Sked, as being founded by eurosceptic academics.

History

Genesis of party which was to become the AfD began in mid 2000 decade

the ‘Hamburger Appell’ (‘Hamburg Appeal’) in 2005 (Funke et al. 2005). In this appeal a huge number of more than 250 German university professors of economics –many of them prominent – collectively addressed the public in pre-election times in order to prevent German economic policy from taking demand side measures and leaving its course of labour market deregulation, dismantling the welfare state and fiscal austerity that it had reinforced since 2003... German professors were obviously very explicit in their rejection of any demand side measures and in declaring them as a temptation they wereeven making it a moral issue to refrain from using them. Furthermore, in their view they were not just stating their opinion on the matter, but denounced other opinions as plainly wrong and not scientifically founded. Therefore, they invoked all their authority as scientists by referring to their status as academic teachers of economics. After the introduction they addressed ten points on economic policy that in their view were import...

2005 Hamburg Appeal Hamburger Appell Funke, M., Lucke, B., Straubhaar, T. (2005): Hamburger Appell, (http://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/fileadmin/wiso_vwl_iwk/paper/appell.pdf).

Free Voters

Bernd Lucke ran as a candidate of the Free Voters in the Lower Saxony state election, 2013 achieving 1.1% of the vote with 39,000 votes.

Background

Since the Eurozone crisis emerged in 2009 Angela Merkel has described her euro crisis strategy against domestic resistance and legal challenges as being "Alternativlos" (without alternative), In 2010 it was proclaimed as the German Un-word of the year, the awarding jury drew attention to the terms' subversion of democratic principles in deeming further discussion as unnecessary or undesirable. "Rettungsroutine" lit. rescue routine, as coined by Wolfgang Bosbach an outspoken euroskeptic member of the CDU to criticise the series of measures undertaken to address the European sovereign-debt crisis by the Bundestag in a rushed manner, possibly without sufficient debate and consideration of alternatives.

legal challenges against the actions of the german government in response to the Euro crisis

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in 2010 Angela Merkel spoke in the German Parliament about the possibility of expelling struggling eurozone member states but came around to the view that stability of the eurozone would be worth the costs of bailout.

On 5 May 2010 the Bundestag Budget Committee approved a draft law on Germany’s contribution to the first Greek financial package. The vote was along party lines, with the three ruling coalition parties all supporting the plan. Frank Schäffler, the FDP financial spokesman, voted against the first Greek bailout because he thought it would obstruct the principles of the free market. He said later that the option of a regulated sovereign default and a change in the eurozone contract were needed, allowing countries like Greece to leave the euro temporarily.On 7 May 2010, after the Bundestag had passed legislation to approve the first financial bailout plan,6 a group of professors and lawyers and an MP (Wilhelm Hankel, Wilhelm Nölling, Joachim Starbatty, Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, Dieter Spethmann and Peter Gauweiler) submitted a constitutional complaint to the German Constitutional Court, together with a request for a temporary court injunction that would prevent the then President, Horst Köhler, from signing the bill into law before the Court had considered their complaint. In June 2010 the Court dismissed this group's bid to stop the implementation of the rescue package, allowing German participation in the measure. The Court still had to consider the challenge itself, but ruled that it would be too damaging to suspend German involvement in the bailout package while it decided on the measure’s constitutionality.On 7 September 2011 the Constitutional Court dismissed three complaints about the first Greek bailout and the establishment of the EFSF, deeming them to be compliant with the German Constitution. The Court stated that the EU’s 2010 bailout for Greece and subsequent aid granted through the rescue fund was legal. August 2011 various reports thought the CDU would not muster enough votes in the Bundestag to pass the EFSF bill.13 The German magazine Focusreported at the end of August 2011 that 23 members of the ruling coalition were “gearing up to vote against the EFSF”, including some loyal CDU supporters such as Wolfgang Bosbach, the deputy parliamentary leader.14On 29 September 2011 the Bundestag approved the bill to extend the EFSF and paved the way for its successor, the ESM, by a large majority (523 in favour to 85 against with 3 abstentions; Chancellor Merkel received 315 votes from her governing coalition, with 15 no-votes). The Bundestag approved the ESM and the fiscal compact legislation on 29 June 2012, the opposition parties supporting the Government in return for measures on growth and job creation. The Bundesrat also later approved both bills. However, following six constitutional complaints about the ESM, concerning alleged lack of democratic oversight and the undermining of parliamentary budgetary powers, the German President did not sign the new laws In July 2012 six constitutional complaints were lodged against the fiscal compact Treaty and the ESM. Karl Albrech sch

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Bernd Lucke sounded party should “push the national interest without being nationalistic, [be] euro critical without being euro hostile”.-http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/afd-founder-hopes-syriza-will-revive-euro-as-a-political-issue-1.2084644

Party name

‘Alternative for Germany’ is a reference to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech about the importance of the ESM in stabilising the single currency in the Bundestag in September 2011. Merkel described the European debt crisis as a historic challenge for Europe and Germany. Peace and German prosperity are intrinsically linked with the advancement of the European idea. Germany therefore has no alternative but to support the Euro.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_IPZBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT28&lpg=PT28&dq=alternative+for+germany+alternativlos&source=bl&ots=mmd-Fj3SkT&sig=UzAYz1YzOKemN-7KcMWDvAn0nCE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kI-lVJv0GcLsaO3qgpAE&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=alternative%20for%20germany%20alternativlos&f=false

The name is a deliberate allusion and a declared program opposed to a quote from German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), which has designated the rescue of the euro was "no alternative".

When Mrs Merkel does have to sell a policy to parliament and the public, she often presents it as “alternativeless”. She used this word to describe the rescue packages for Greece and other measures in the euro crisis. It was voted by a language jury the ugliest German neologism of 2010, and has sparked sarcastic resistance on the political fringes. The anti-euro party even took the ironic name Alternative for Germany.-http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21625790-economic-woes-home-are-testing-angela-merkels-understanding-how-best-use-her

Wholesale name itself was a replica of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said that there was no alternative to the current policy to save the euro, it was "Alternativlos".

The AfD's manifesto was launched stating “We present an alternative to the so-called ‘no-alternative’ politics”.

The Alternative for Germany party .... to break the pro-Euro political consensus among the parties of Germany, and challenge the idea that the Euro-rescue measures being implemented to halt the Eurozone crisis are "Alternativlos" as described by Angela Merkel and the federal government to justify their political solutions.

Merkel ensured that a public debate about different strategies towards the crisis and Germany´s role never took place, thus opening a void for the AfD.

http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/the-euro-breaking-the-spiral-of-silence

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/14/german-economist-eurozone-eu

"There is something like a free speech police here in Germany saying there is no alternative to the euro. We are the alternative now, Alternative for Germany," Konrad Adam-http://euobserver.com/political/119790

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As the euro crisis rolls on, Germany’s crisis debate is increasingly shot through with a uniquely German brand of prosperity chauvinism. With no sense of economic hardship here, periphery countries are condemned as “debt sinners” who need to “do their homework” to boost economic competitiveness and reduce deficits in exchange for financial assistance. Criticisms directed at Germany from its neighbours – the wider economic and social effects of extended periods of austerity measures, for instance – have not gained traction in the debate here. When Angela Merkel is criticised, it is not for being too tough, but for being too soft.

To date, Merkel has not acknowledged the rise of the AfD. But she will have to take on the new arrivals if she is to abide by the golden rule for all CDU leaders: do not tolerate political upstarts further right on Germany’s political spectrum. The CDU could face a second right-wing, euro-critical upstart: the Free Voters. They want to extend its political reach beyond its Bavarian base and scored a coup last year by winning as its lead candidate for the general election Stephan Werhahn, grandson of Konrad Adenauer.But, a year after his defection from CDU, the Free Voters are racked by infighting and Werhahn has quietly returned to the party his grandfather co-founded and the promise of a safe seat in a conservative southwest constituency.

The distortive potential of Germany’s new political arrivals was already clear last January, when a euro-critical alliance garnered 39,000 votes, or 1.1 per cent, in the state election of Lower Saxony. While not enough to secure any seats in the Hanover parliament, it was more than enough to deprive outgoing CDU governor David McAllister of the votes he needed for another term. The appetite for euro-critical debate is growing in German newspapers – though none has, as yet, backed the AfD

Journalist Jens Peter Paul conducted interviews with many key single-currency players and even got Helmut Kohl to admit he played the “dictator” by pushing through the euro without a referendum in Germany because he knew he wouldn’t get the result he wanted.

Post-unification haze Paul’s conclusion is this: German politicians, in a post-unification haze of gratitude and self-effacement, abandoned their critical faculties to embrace a currency project that was heavy on political aspiration but light on economic sense. Such critical thinking on the euro is nothing new around Europe but hot stuff by German standards. In September’s general election, this crisis-weary zeitgeist is the battle ground between Angela Merkel’s alternativlos politics and the upstart Alternative for Germany.

After an initial glut of media surrounding the Party's formation and inaugural conference in April 2013, media coverage of the party was low with little media reporting of the Party's Berlin conference which launched policies on energy, health and defence, which were viewed by Deutsche Welle as populist and cobbled together. Early summer saw the party struggling to garner media attention as the media focussed attention on domestic matters and NSA spying scandal.-http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/14/germany-antieuro-party-idUSL6N0FK05M20130714

only a minority of people care about the issues and have an approximate understanding of them"."Talking with people in the street ... we've seen that maybe 20 percent of voters are really interested in economics and the euro and have even a rudimentary knowledge of it," the Hamburg-based economics professor told foreign correspondents in Berlin.

SDP and Green party quick to seize upon with former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder...Juergen Trittin of the Green Party accused Merkel, in comments in the Osnabrücker Zeitung, of avoiding debate on Greece because of her "panic" about losing votes to the Alternative for Germany. seen as an attempt by the SDP and Green coalition to try and trim votes from the CDU and FDP to the AfD. At first, Schäuble's aides tried to dismiss the treacherous sentence as a regrettable slip of the tongue, but by then the debate could no longer be stopped. "So there will be more money for the Greeks, after all," the tabloid Bild wrote in a front page story. Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder accused the chancellor of having told "a very big lie," and campaigners for the euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party were delighted at this unexpected boost to their campaign. Occurred with increase in left-wing attacks, boost to media attention which had been somewhat flagging. from position where Lucke was criticised as desperate for a magazine spread with die linke, and saying the electorate did not know who they were...

Policy

Economic

change the new voting system at the European Central Bank that takes effect when Lithuania joins the euro next year, despite a potential loss of influence for the Bundesbank, the finance ministry said on Monday.Once Lithuania becomes the 19th state to adopt the European Union's single currency next January, the national central bank governors who sit on the ECB's Governing Council will take turns voting, to speed up decision-making. The Bundesbank will have to sit out once every five months. AfD leader Bernd Lucke wants to annul the agreed rotation of votes "to ensure that stability-oriented central banks like the German Bundesbank always have a voting right appropriate to their status", he told Handelsblatt newspaper's online edition. Voting rights should depend on the share of ECB capital, to which Germany contributes around 27 percent, Lucke said.

The party supports the repatriation of all foreign held German gold reserves.

Manifesto for Greek recovery

23 March 2015 published a manifesto for Greek Recovery, which supported Grexit. basically called for greek exit from the Euro.-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11480375/Tsipras-meets-Merkel-in-crunch-bail-out-talks-live.html

Foreign Policy

the most controversial topic proved to be a proposal for a resolution against sanctions on Russia in the context of the Crimea annexation. The original draft expressed broad understanding for Russia’s actions and was characterised by an openly anti-American tone. Though many delegates criticised this notion, the majority nevertheless agreed on the argument that Russia should be respected as a powerful nation, and that the new government in Kiev completely lacked legitimacy. In the end, the final resolution did not reflect the very Pro-Putin tendencies of the debate, but it stated clearly that the AfD rejects any kind of sanctions as well as any further eastward enlargement of NATO.

The mastermind behind AfD’s retrogressive foreign policy programme is Alexander Gauland, a member of the federal AfD board, a former member of the CDU, and the former state secretary for Hesse premier Walter Wallmann. In September 2013, before the Bundestag elections, Gauland published a concept paper for the AfD outlining key theses on the party’s foreign policy positions, in which he went so far as to call for a return to the nineteenth-century realism of Carl von Clausewitz, who called “war […] the continuation of policy by other means”. But the grounding of Gauland’s thinking lies back in pre-AfD times. For example, Gauland wrote a column in July 2012 for the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel titled “Foggy pacifism – why Germans have major issues with the use of force”, in which he publicly argued that Germans should be made to overcome their “troubled relationship with the use of military power” and quoted Otto von Bismarck as advice to future German governments: “The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions […] but by iron and blood.” In contrast to Gauland’s open revanchist attitude

10 September 2013 Alexander Gauland the deputy national spokesman of the AfD released a position paper on the foreign policy aims of the party. In the document Gauland presented foreign and security policy, the AFD shall in principle for a greater emphasis on national interests.

In which he supported the firm anchoring of Germany into the Western security architecture of NATO under U.S. leadership.

He refused foreign missions outside the NATO area, as in Afghanistan, but did not rule out the possibility of intervention in peripheral Europe as in North Africa (see ArabellionArab Spring) in principle, if German core interests are affected.

Reinsurance Treaty between Russia and

He also called to carefully maintain the relationship with Russia. He cited in support of his ideas in relation to Russia since the 18th to the 20th Century at key milestones positive relationship between Russia and Prussia. called for respect and sensitivity when dealing with former soviet republics to Russia, respect of self-determination of these states.

citing Western promises that NATO would not expand to the east of the Oder river Russia did with western promise in recent times many bad experiences. "Germany and Europe have no interest in a further weakening of Russia," said Alexander Gauland, AfD's foreign affairs chief.

"One military strike against the Assad government in Syria civil war declined from Gauland.

In terms of Chancellor Merkel's repeated assurances that the existence of Israel is part of the raison d'etat of Germany, Gauland pointed out that Germany must answer what they would do in case of a threat to the existence of Israel, for it not to sound like a hollow phrase, stating legally and strategically Germany is unable support this position.

Ukraine crisis

head of TNS Emnid polling institute supportfor AFD in the 2014 Euro election could be hit by the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, as voters. A dispute is brewing in the AfD over Ukraine - federal party leaders say borders are "not immovable" but this week Bavarian party officials said the AfD should condemn Russia's annexation of Crimea as a breach of international law and call for "an end to Russia's aggressive policies towards its neighbors".

A few days before the referendum in Crimea, Bernd Lucke, party leader of the Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD), publicly said that he recognized its results. Crimeans voted in free elections to join Russia, Lucke said, adding that he would give priority to the right of self-determination over territorial integrity.

European Union

Before the German parliamentary election in 2013 the deputy national spokesman Alexander Gauland released a foreign policy concept paper, which was not incorporated in the AfD's electoral program. In the paper he called for an orderly dissolution of the existing Euro area, retention of the single market, with friendly and reliable cooperation among European nations and the USA and Canada.

In the paper Gauland stated the party's position should be against all attempts by the European Commission to gain powers without legal basis, which he feels erodes the sovereignty of nation states. He advocated the adoption of policy that the EU should not position itself as a world power, and should refrain from creating such a relationship with the USA, Russia and China.

In the concept paper he stated that EU enlargement has reached its limits and has been overstretched, and that the AfD should be against any further expansion of the EU into the Balkan states, saying the potential for integration is already exhausted until further notice. On the EU membership of Turkey Gauland issued a clear rejection: "According to the AfD, Europe ends at the Bosporus...with the inclusion of Turkey, Western Europe would lose its identity". The party believes that delayed negotiations (and accession chapters which are blocked by member states), create distrust of the EU in Turkey, with Gauland calling for honesty in denying Turkey membership. On further enlargement of the EU, Bernd Lucke stated that he saw the accession of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as unlikely during sitting of the 2014-2019 European Parliament, stating that they must prepare well before joining.

The main demands of the AfD at the European level are the controlled abolishment of the euro, a stronger role for Germany in Europe, a stricter immigration policy, opposition to any gender mainstreaming or female quotas, and referenda before each new accession.

Development cooperation policy

As of June 2014 the AfD had not yet adopted a full suite of policy on the area of foreign development, with Hans-Olaf Henkel stating that other policy areas had until now taken priority among the party. He said the party hopes to expand on the brief section on the issue in their manifesto in the coming months. In an interview with EurActive he spoke of a "sympathetic triangle" made up of human rights, democracy and market economy. VENRO, the German development umbrella organisation declined to comment on Hans-Olaf Henkel's expansion on the offical AfD policy. Though the German Foundation for World Population criticised his positions as representing a "completely outdated picture".

Social Policy

Reports have in the past labelled the AfD as a racist, religious fundamentalist and even right-wing populist party. AfD attempt to court before the 2014 European elections homosexuals, women and immigrants, in an attempt to make the party more socially acceptable, but this was described as only a "surface polishing" by Der Spiegel, with party establishing a gay and lesbian issues working group .

Previously leader Bernd Lucke had been criticised over comments he made regarding German football player Thomas Hitzlsperger public announcement that he was gay in early 2014, Lucke said he would have preferred to see him commit to family values. Lucke announced after that he did not intend for comment to be taken as homophobic.

Lucke gay rights-http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/05/23/founder-of-anti-gay-german-party-now-claims-to-be-pro-gay/

set up a women's issues group called "Erna", with insiders the influence of Bernd Lucke's wife, also an economics researcher

Amann said AfD has wooed ultra-religious supporters and have also promoted a Christian network within the party.

AFD also says it supports organ donations without the permission of the deceased, a position for which there is by no means majority support within the party.

the answer provided by AFD on the question of whether the European Union should be considered a community of Christian values, is that it is "neutral," because there are other values than those of the Western world in the EU.

Melanie Amann in Der Spiegel raised possibility that manipulation of Wahl-o-mat, to appeal to more potential voters who may be put off by some of the parties previous stated position on these matters.

the change has not gone unnoticed by some party members who were attracted to the party by its anti-politically correct stances.

AfD being against tax and adoption rights of homosexuals.

Organisation

Finances

http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/report-german-eurosceptic-party-took-in-77-million-euros-in-2013_383839.html

Gold trading

Late 2014 the AfD began gold trading in what was widely seen as an attempt to increase party funds, to increase the federal fund matching of political parties.-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11205562/Germanys-eurosceptic-party-begin-selling-gold.html The speaker or president of the German parliament, Norbert Lammert, on Friday said that he was considering changing the rules on party financing in Germany.http://www.dw.de/cash-for-gold-german-euroskeptics-fundraising-in-question/a-18079642 to exploit a loophole in party funding regulations. Until now, the state gave parties 85 cents ($0.92) for every vote if they got more than 0.5 percent in the last election - but only up to the value of their total income from membership fees, donations and other businesses. The idea of the cap was to stop smaller parties living off tax money - but by boosting its income via its gold trade, the AfD ensured that it was entitled to the extra subsidies even though the profit was marginal.-http://www.dw.com/en/after-the-gold-rush-afd-loses-state-subsidies/a-18928520

Reception

Political reactions

"The rise of the AfD is unusual because it seems to break the German consensus," says Pavel Swidlicki, an analyst with the Open Europe think tank in London. “This is the consensus across all political parties – that European integration is the best way forward.”http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/rise-germanys-euro-skeptics

There are four different ways that mainstream German parties deal with the populist movement, AfD. The first is being pursued by the governing coalition of the CDU and the SPD: ignoring the AfD. Not everyone in the CDU is happy with this approach, since politicians from the German regions, in particular, fear a good showing by the AfD in this year’s elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. A contrasting approach is being pursued by the CSU: overtaking the AfD with even more populist rhetoric. Some CDU politicians, especially at the European level, are worried that this will not be limited to just Bavaria, but might influence the German public discourse as a whole.

Manfred Güllner, head of polling company Forsa, said that with just over 2 million votes in the European Parliament election the AfD had not substantially increased its total votes since the September 2013 national election. As the lower voter turnout in the European Parliament meant that their share of votes increased, "but they still give the impression that they made great gains".

only 8 percent believed Lucke was better equipped to deal with the challenges of governing Germany than other politicians.

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Mainstream parties gone from ignoring the party to demeaning it.

narrative of lumping AfD in a group of "right-wing extremist" parties in election.

Post 2014 elections

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have ruled out ties with the AfD. CDU General Secretary Peter Tauber accuses it of using extremist language to "fish" among far-right voters and says it is "not a normal conservative party".

Angela Merkel repeated that the CDU will not cooperate with the AfD after state elections 2014. In an internal strategy paper, centre-right CDU politicians call for a change of attitude. The document, obtained by Bild, argues that the centre-right alliance's strategy of ignoring the AfD has failed."These election results will only be a surprise to those who have long contested the fact that the centre-right alliance has been losing traction among traditional conservatives," says the document composed by high-profile CDU members. In this context, if it seems that "only" 23% of the AfD's electorate voted for the centre-right in the previous election, it should not be comforting, the CDU politicians write. "But, rather, discomforting. Especially because the centre-right lost the most voters due to migration to the AfD," the document said. The authors call on leaders in the centre-right alliance to programmatically address conservative voters within the AfD.

CDU attack the AfD in interview with Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, Wolfgang Schauble accused the AfD of propagating xenophobia, “instrumentalising” crimes committed by foreigners for its own ends, attacking the principle of open borders and trying to convince voters that they would be better off without the Euro... finance minister said the AfD reminded him of Germany’s far right Republican Party...in a commentary published on Monday, Der Tagesspiegel said Mr Schauble had effectively described the AfD as an “ Alternative to the Nazis”. ...Mr Lucke retorted that Mr Schauble’s criticism was “helplessness” in the face of a party which has “opened the eyes of the people to his policies and which is winning increasing support.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11128648/Angela-Merkel-allies-attack-eurosceptic-AfD-as-abusive.html

Schauble continued attack Oct 2014 The comments by Schaeuble, wheelchair-bound since an assassination attempt in 1990, follow a statement by the AfD party that said Schaeuble deserves “pity” for the “high, very personal price” the minister had to pay for his political career. Citing the statement, Schaeuble today said the party is employing “resentments against handicapped people.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-09/schaeuble-says-anti-euro-afd-party-is-a-shame-for-germany-.html

Press

Konrad Werner in Exberliner blog "the AfD's main purpose is to provide a roof for Germany's disaffected bourgeoisie." And this month (March 2014), the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, a paper that you need a doctorate to buy, declared dismissively that the AfD was being taken over by "Bible-loyal Protestants" who favour referendums on mosque-building, no adoption rights for gay couples, and home-schooling. The AfD was becoming, the FAS concluded with a shudder, "the German Tea Party." (based on the supposed von Stoch quote about Multikulti, see TV show walk out)

Comparisons to other parties in Germany

comparisons to pro-DM party and to the right wing German Republicans by head of Forsa polling agency. In 1989, the staunchly anti-immigrant Republikaner party won 7 per cent in the European election – a peak result for the right in modern Germany – before later fizzling. again Manfred Güllner.

pro-DM - Petry.

comparison has also been made to the small German Freedom Party -right wing islam critical (founded 2010), the libertarian Partei der Vernunft -party of reason (founded 2009) and Pro Deutschland who have all failed to gain representation. -

the German media has in recent months taken to portraying it as one of several right-wing populist parties eating into the voter base of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

Eurosceptic members within the CDU/CSU and FDP. Already in the 2009-2013 parliament the eurosceptics made it necessary for Merkel rely on support from the Greens and SPD to get legislation passed, (such as the Cyprus rescue package and November 2012 second Greek bailout).

Religious reaction

Robert Zollitsch a catholic archbishop, said before the election that he hoped the AfD would not enter the Bundestag in an interview with Badishcen Tagblatt.-http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2013/08/11/katholische-kirche-lehnt-rueckkehr-in-die-nationalstaaten-ab/ Response from Beatrix von Storch in an open letter to the archbishop. 12 days later response from Bernd Lucke...http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/interview-von-erzbischof-zollitsch-katholische-kritik-erzuernt-die-afd-1.1750919 criticism irritated many in the party-http://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article119085418/Warum-die-AfD-dem-Bischof-mit-Homo-Ehe-kommt.html http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.alternative-fuer-deutschland-euroskeptiker-reagieren-auf-zollitsch-kritik.384b2d6b-3b53-43b0-b5f0-7ac604172a72.html

Dieter Graumann president of the central council of German jews, “Hatred of Jews does not belong in politics, it should be reviled. A new party like the AfD should stick to this German democratic principle convincingly.”, criticism from Germany’s main Jewish organisation, which accused the AfD of harbouring anti-Semitic elements. The charge follows allegations that a newly elected AfD MP in Brandenburg had published an anti-Semitic cartoon on his Facebook profile. The AfD took immediate steps to expel the member from the party, who left the party.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/27/church-accused-of-ulterior-motives-for-harbouring-muslim-migrants/

Foreign reaction

In an economic report the Italian employers' federation, Confindustria viewed the potential of AfD [not clear if AfD named directly] entering the German Parliament as ...economic research unit director Luca Paolazzi...http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/italy-business-lobby-says-german-anti-euro-party-could-paralyse-eueds-german-elections-due-september-22_296800.html

Michel Barnier the French EU commissioner responsible for financial services, at a press conference in Brussels when asked about the performance of the AfD party. Populists, whether of the right or left, “feed off the crisis. They feed off social problems, people’s anger”.

AfD discussed widely in Greek media.

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The party has been well received among British Eurosceptics... Bernd Lucke on mainstream TV... reaction in the UK contrasts with the reception among German voters who view the party as more extreme.

In a daily leader after the 2014 European Election Denmark's Jyllands Posten found the AfD perceptions/opinions of the Euro were not significantly different from the attitudes of many Danes, with no indication that the AfD was particularly right-wing seeing no cause for anxiety at the rise of the AfD.

The Danish newspaper Berlingske ran an article called "Germany normalised" in which it noted that Germany was one of the last EU nations to elect a eurosceptic party (with right-wing and populist tones) to the EU parliament. In which they quoted Michael Kaeding a professor of European Integration and Policy at the University of Duisburg-Essen as saying the AfD represented a "Parliamentary normalisation of German politics".

Euroscepticism á la UKIP has never worked in Germany, but the AfD represents a peculiarly German way of showing how the EU is not functioning as many would like.-http://theconversation.com/merkel-must-manoeuvre-to-see-off-euroscepticism-in-germany-18633

AfD ruled out working with Marine Le Pen, Marine Le Pen said of working with the AfD "They have not expressed any such wish up until now. We share certain views with the AfD but it's not a popular party - it's an elite one and it has a completely different structure." They have yet to show interest in such a cooperation. We share certain viewpoints with the AFD, but they are not a party of the people. Rather they are an elitist party with a different structure from ours. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-french-front-national-leader-marine-le-pen-a-972925.html

Credit Rating Agencies and Financial markets

Rise of the AfD viewed after successes in state elections in 2014, affect of the party on the political landscape of Germany amid the continuing weakness of the Eurozone economy and rescue policies/deficit reductions...

September 2014 report released by Standard & Poor's German analyst Moritz Kraemer

"AfD has presented a party program, appears to enjoy a disciplined leadership, and is a well-funded party appealing to conservatives more broadly, beyond its europhobe core and roots. Most political analysts agree that the ascent of AfD is unlikely to be a short-term phenomenon. It could also have repercussions beyond German politics."

shift in the political landscape of Germany from the AfD, report author expected the CDU to try and reoccupy political space to the right, which could manifest in a hardening against euro rescue compromises

Attempts to discredit the party as a Right-wing fringe group have failed.

Rise of the AfD as a political force in Germany and the ramifications of the party on the ability/willingness of Germany to act in Euro crises... The AfD only needs to create doubt to upset this equilibrium. It does not need to win an election or become part of a government. Its strategy will be to test the limits of Germany’s commitment. That strategy stands a fair chance of success. And when that happens, it will wreak havoc.

Public image

AfD more vote percent from younger voters, who may be more inclined to vote for new parties-http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/afd-party-of-youth.html

Unlike Germany’s tiny neo-Nazi party, which is backed largely by the economic underclass, the AfD is attracting disaffected middle-class professionals, entrepreneurs and teachers. High quality global journalism requires investment. According to Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, a research group, the AfD won proportionately more support from educated younger voters with jobs than from uneducated older people or the unemployed. Although the AfD took votes from all mainstream rivals, the biggest single source was the liberal FDP, a classic middle-class party.

The party attracted support in record time thanks to the AfD image perfected by Lucke: either/or absolutism mixed with euro populism that flirts with the far right – all cloaked in tweedy, professorial sobriety. The AfD scored big by increasing the populist volume while broadening its political profile as a conservative, law-and-order party. The AfD’s euro critical profile is now playing second fiddle to criticism of Islam and migration,” says Prof Jochen Franzke of the University of Potsdam http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/afd-founder-hopes-syriza-will-revive-euro-as-a-political-issue-1.2084644

AfD and political extremes

fuelled discussion as to how close the party is to right wing groups. election of former member of the Freedom Party to head the Chemnitz branch of the AfD. links to Pro-Cologne movement

that sometimes its press conferences seem disorganised. Speakers turn up late or go to the wrong venue.

http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/german-election-update-lucke-hits-back.html

The car of AfD candidate Beatrix von Storch was vandalised in Berlin.

The party found itself in the hot seat in June, when a photo one of its officials, Lennard Rudolph, started trending on Facebook. In it, he is seen on a bicycle, raising his hand in what looks like a Nazi salute. Rudolph denied any far-right affiliation and claimed that the distribution of the photo was part of a far-left smear campaign.

In November 2013 party spokeswoman Frauke Petry was due to address conference on sovereignty , motto "For the future of the family!" a controversial conference organised by the right-wing populist magazine Compact but withdrew. Described as an "international forum in defense of the traditional type of family" by Yelena Mizulina, and as a meeting of right-wing populists, anti-immigrants and homophobes by Der Spiegel.

Frauke Petry, one of the three equal CEO of AFD is to deal with the shortcomings of family policy in the past and present alternatives.

http://www.thelocal.de/20141121/right-wing-agenda-gains-ground-with-middle-class http://www.euractiv.com/sections/justice-home-affairs/afd-supporters-lean-towards-xenophobia-and-fascism-research-says

---

One supporter of AfD was reported by the media as saying that unemployed people should sell their organs, while another said people from the "very lowest class" should not be allowed to vote. These views are reported to have alienated some voters according to pollsters, in light of the German electorate's historically motivated aversion to engage with extreme political views. ---Supporters outside a building where the AFD meet said this? So they where not even members. Thats not really relevant.---

Electoral Performance

2013 German Federal Election

22 September 2013 German federal election, 2013

Analysis of the federal election results showed that the AFD gained 6% support among 18-24 and 25-44 year old voters. Support for AfD drops to 5% in the 45-59 group, and to below 3% in the over-60's category. The AfD won enough votes to take it over the 5% barrier, in all but one of the eastern German states.

Although the party did not manage to overcome the 5% hurdle the result was regarded as a success for a party only founded the same year. The AfD votes in the federal election were described as strong by the Washington Post, with a rise in prominence, also resulting for the showing.

A poll ahead of the federal elections conducted by the University of Hohenheim put the euro crisis at the top of people's concerns, ahead of wages and unemployment.

2013 Campaign

While 3 per cent of poll respondents are committed to backing the AfD, A poll conducted for the Allensbach Institute found 8 per cent of respondents were considering voting for the party on Sept. 22, Koecher said in an Aug. 21 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article. With pollsters admitting the demographic appeal of the party is hard to assess... -http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/alternative-for-germany-anti-euro-party-could-upset-german-election-a-920805.html

A Forsa poll released on 4 September found support for the AfD... with 28 percent of having voted for the CDU at the 2009 election, 15 percent previously voted SPD, while 14 percent chose the business-friendly Free Democrats. 15 percent refrained from voting altogether at the previous election.

widely reported leap to 4% in September, with some polls at even 5% the week before the election, late upswing in polling.-http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-poll-sees-euroskeptic-alternative-for-germany-in-parliament-a-923213.html

Traditional Polling and Meta Analyses

A Forsa poll released on 4 September found AfD support at 4% which was widely reported in the press as the AFD gaining support in the wake of potential further Greek bailouts entering political discourse, though this figure is within the 2% margin of error generally expected in such polls, Polling from traditional pollsters showed AfD support to be much lower than that based upon social media meta analyses

Wahl-Radar 2013 who use social media data on 1 September showed AfD on 7.6% support. Wahl-O-Meter (10.9% 7/09/13) over 10%, and an online straw poll organised by Bild showed support as high as 15%.

AfD stable over 7% Wahl-Radar 2013-http://transmedia.typepad.com/files/wahl-radar-02-sep-2013.pdf

-http://www.blicklog.com/2013/08/18/bundestagswahl-2013-prognosen-der-wahlbrsen/

Forsa disagreement

Bernd Lucke accused the polling company Forsa of manipulating polling results for the party down, restraining order on Luckehttp://www.rp-online.de/politik/deutschland/bundestagswahl/forsa-erwirkt-einstweilige-verfuegung-gegen-afd-aid-1.3682615

Party leader Bernd Lucke recently stated that the country's polling industry was part of a conspiracy to keep the party down, so pollsters aren't very popular among AfD sympathizers. "Lucke's recent comments mean that some of his supporters are refusing to speak to us, which inevitably introduces a degree of bias into the data,"

AfD's antagonistic relationship with German polling organisations.

"The AfD uses the euro. It is a base for rightwing populist politics"-Manfred Güllner of Forsa.

“The AfD uses the euro. It is a base for rightwing-populist politics,” says Manfred Güllner, head of Forsa social research institute.

2015, “Güllner, head of the Forsa polling firm in Berlin, pointed out that in the May elections for the European Parliament, the AfD did especially well in voting districts seen as bastions of far-right sympathy, such as a region in southeastern Germany known as Saxon Switzerland. While Mr. Henkel helps lend the party an air of respectability, Mr. Güllner said, ‘in my eyes it’s almost an extreme-right party.’”-http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2015/01/herr-henkel-shocked-party-embraces-bigots.html

Social Media

The AfD's use of social media (Facebook and Youtube) as mainstream media in Germany have tended to ignore the party.

2014 European Parliament Election

The morning after the 2013 German Federal election Bernd Lucke announced the party intends to stand in the 2014 European Parliament election, where the barrier for representation is currently 3% (although this is currently being challenged in court). Commentators raised concerns as to whether the AfD’s success was going to be short-term or representative of an emerging eurosceptic movement, fuelled by the initial refusal of Bernd Lucke to answer questions of whether he will continue with the party or return to academia following the vote.

The Economist predicts the party will be successful in entering the European Parliament in 2014. While Die Welt speculated that "A new crisis in Greece, a debt write off without political preparation, a tumbling Portugal, or even France, could bring a large increase in votes for the AfD in the European elections."

change in tone, from simple criticism of euro currency to a more nationalist, German voice against centralised European superstate. nationalist message of the new slogan was tempered by the 'eu' in Deutschland being encircled by the EU stars. attack european union federalism, defend national sovereignty against united states of europe.

Party still controversial to some, with cleaners scrubbing graffiti off walls and protesters outside January meeting. Former members critical of what they see as party moving to right and nationalistic.

destruction of party material and intimidation of party members continures in Euro election, political comments on the party-http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/eurosceptic-afd-under-attack-germany-302157 provocative posters fat kid from North Korea...http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/german-anti-euro-party-surfs-wave-of-eu-bailout-hostility/article/383734

Lucke said did not like the aggressive message of UKIP on immigration.

• http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/140515/germanys-eurosceptics-gain-support-populist-tag-stings
• http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/backgroundgermanys-eurosceptic-alternative-for-germany_335924.html opposition to minimum wage

2014 state elections in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia

Alternative for Germany is struggling for momentum. Polls in Saxony, the party’s national stronghold, suggest the chances of entering its first state legislature in Germany in the Aug. 31 vote are touch-and-go.

Likely to enter state parliaments, Merkel again rules out working with AfD.-http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/140826/german-anti-euro-party-set-gains-eastern-votes

AfD rhetoric shifted from core anti-Euro policy into more socially conservative areas for the state elections, to include issues such as school discipline, opposition to gender quota legislation, protection for families and immigration and citizenship issues.

European affiliation

Intra-party tensions over potential European alliances

Germany’s official ‘representative electoral statistics‘ -an analyis of 2013 Federal election results (a special count of ballot papers that are colour-coded according to voters’ sex, age, and region) also found a sizeable gap between the party leadership and their electoral base.

Cooperation with the European Conservatives and Reformists

---

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/02/cameron-only-has-himself-blame-tories-latest-europe-row FT summary the AfD leader, told the Financial Times that he had formally applied to join the Tory-backed European Conservatives and Reformists group Mr Lucke, who has met the ECR leadership to discuss his party’s application to join, described the Tory-CDU relations as “estranged” and said a new partnership was possible. “People do typically not ‘look’ for sisters. They come unexpectedly,” -http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b85e295e-e816-11e3-9cb3-00144feabdc0.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2a522e10-ea61-11e3-afb3-00144feabdc0.html

some Conservatives were angered as the EPP stood candidates against the Conservatives in London European Parliament constituency as 4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP), which they claim the CDU/CSU agreed to. With the leader of the 4 Freedoms Party, Dirk Hazell writing to the conservatives asking for the party whip to be withdrawn from any MEP who sits with the AfD.

assistance from EPP political, from deceased former president Wilfried Martens-http://www.euractiv.com/sections/uk-europe/hazell-we-must-challenge-ukips-anti-eu-fear-mongers-301752

http://blogs.blouinnews.com/blouinbeatpolitics/2014/06/04/cameron-in-pickle-as-german-eurosceptics-seek-voice-in-brussels/ http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/german-euro-critics-appeal-to-tories-for-deal-1.1826255

Acceptance into ECR

On 12 June 2014 It was announced that the AfD had been accepted into the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament. The official vote result was not released to the public though figures of 29 votes for, and 26 against were reported from the membership. It was claimed that two Conservative members voted for the AfD's admission to the group, against the wishes of David Cameron, with the Conservative party hierarchy in London reiterating that it sees the CDU/CSU as their "sister party" in Germany.

Cameron Merkel relations

European People's Party (to which Merkel's Christian Democrats belong), voted to accept the euro-skeptic German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) into its ranks. Merkel had asked Cameron to prevent just that -- and his Tories claim they tried. But, as one CDU politician noted last week, the Tories are so "extensively infiltrated" by euro skeptics that any anti-AfD campaign within their ranks did not seem credible.-http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/cameron-and-juncker-fight-over-role-in-european-commission-a-975528.html

Junge Alternative youth organisation

"Verstand statt Ideologie"

despite willingness to provoke controversy the JA has also been accused of being controlling and wary of the media. Journalists attending had to sign an agreement about the public use of images and recordings from the conference, critical questions were not welcome during the press conference. Even during the panel discussion with Nigel Farage and Marcus Pretzell only selected questions, which had to be submitted in advance, were permitted. recording interviews,

---

• Controversy Benjamin Nolte

According to media reports in March 2014, the former vice chairman Benjamin Nolte was a member of the Fraternities Libertas Brno to Aachen and Munich Danubia ; the latter is brought media to the extreme right in context. In 2009, he should at Burschentag in Eisenach against a fraternity with a dark-skinned member of " racially motivated have "behavior. In a statement, the Federal Executive announced Nolte was not a member in a right-or left-wing extremist organization. Following the controversy Nolte resigned from his position. (german wiki -https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junge_Alternative_f%C3%BCr_Deutschland)

Bavarian interior minister Guenther Beckstein Danubia fraternity in Munich for offering a platform to people with extreme and anti-constitutional views.

Brixit

2017 scenario in which the British could choose to leave the EU. "In that case, the EU will lose the last country with a shred of healthy common sense. Then we will be lost."HOH -http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/germanys-anti-euro-afd-hollande-doing-nothing-301855

Bernd Lucke "A British exit from the EU would definitely not be in the German interest."

HuffPo Interview (AfD diff UKIP & Cons)

Dangerous for the UK to leave the EU , Britain to defend the EU from further federalism.

"I think it would be really tragic if Great Britain left."

he would prefer that Cameron's emphasis on renegotiation of Britain's relationship with the EU concentrated on economic rather than migration issues.

"Freedom of movement of capital and labour is a great achievement of the European Union and I would not support any efforts to limit that," he said. "I don't think that will happen."

In a 2014 interview with HuffPo Bernd Lucke pointedly stated of the AfD that "We do not want to leave the European Union, this distinguishes us from Ukip."

Bernd Lucke stated of the AfD that they were beyond left-right politics "We have a number of positions, conservative in terms of, say, family and interior security," he said. "We have some ideas from the left like direct democracy, like debt forgiveness for overly indebted countries, a really strict line vis-a-vis banks."

Misc.

22/23 March 2014 second national party convention in Erfurt to adopt election platform.

Future Elections

Lucke suggested that parties narrowly missing the 5% barrier for representation in the Bundestag should be awarded a non-voting presence in the chamber.

Party supports standardised electricity sockets throughout the EU, with HOH stating "When I go with my iPhone to Britain I would like to be able to put my plug in. So that is what Europe can do".

2014 eastern state elections

developed a broadened policy base in the run-up to state election in former eastern German states..

broadly along social conservative lives...

focussing on crime, the family Crime in East -http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-24/german-borderlands-lured-by-anti-euro-party-s-crime-push.html http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/06/22/Is-this-Germany-s-Tea-Party-The-AfD-s-cry-of-Courage-for-Germany-rattles-Merkel HOH -http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/20/business/international/a-german-voice-hans-olaf-henkel-calls-for-euros-abolition.html?_r=0

In Saxony the AfD beat two mainstream parties, the Greens and the Free Demoratic party, to come fourth.

leader of Saxony did not dismiss cooperating with the AfD before the election, unlike Merkel who ruled out working with the party. However day after the election Stanislaw Tillich ruled out any cooperation with the AfD in the state.

New

Storch Timmann Latin -http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/german-afd-candidate-eu-upside-down-302353 Hugh Bronson interview http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/162388-elections-european-parliament-eurosceptic/

http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/what-does-alternative-fur-deutschland.html

http://www.thelocal.de/20140525/eurosceptic-leader-celebrates-afd-rise

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/31/Cameron-can-t-stop-Merkel-s-opponents-joining-Tory-group-in-European-Parliament

AfD pldge to cooperate with ECR and not EFD or Le Penn/Wilders group after gaining 7 seats. differences between the AfD and Conservatives such as Turkish membership of the EU and TTIP.

AfD now willing to cooperate with the CDU/CSU in state parliaments, however Merkel appeared to rule out any cooperation with the party. stating "we are not considering cooperation" with the AfD. signalled a willingness of Merkel to acknowledge the presence of the party she has ignored until now. Change of approach following the poor polling of Merkel's sister party the CSU, who took a more eurosceptic tone before the election, came in with worst euro poll results.

Germany's tame eurosceptics, German press finally beginning to take AfD as a serious party?-http://www.thelocal.de/20140527/germany-alone-elections-eu-eurosceptics-parliament

letters from people, AfD "deplorable"-http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/05/20/tories-european-parliament_n_5357362.html

McMillan Scott -http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2014/02/26/comment-cameron-s-eu-policy-plays-into-putin-s-hands

Merkel AFD ECR UKIP group death sentence, Michael Kaeding from the Universität Duisburg-Essen doubts whether the AfD will join the ECR political group.

"Such a joining [...] could go wrong", If the AfD were to become a member of the ECR, it would have a "very significant European platform", a situation which would not be in Merkel's interest because the EPP would then have to form a coalition with the AfD. German Chancellor Angela Merkel could personally be responsible for such a failure new faction require 25 members from 7 nations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10856705/German-Eurosceptics-gain-votes-in-blow-for-Angela-Merkel.html

in wake of euroelection and Merkels refusal to cooperate with the party, discussion within CDU about how to deal with the AfD, between refusing to even appear on TV debates with the party and delimiting areas in which possible cooperation would be considered.http://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/politik/article128619084/Steinbach-wirbt-fuer-Koalition-der-CDU-mit-der-AfD.html

lucke storch EU committee http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/wirtschaftspolitik/waehrungsausschuss-lehnt-afd-chef-ab-luckes-scheitern-im-eu-parlament-wirft-fragen-auf-13034563.html

Otto Brenner Foundation analysis

Research funded by the Otto Brenner Foundation, carried out by ... German short? Otto Brenner Siftung/(foundation) conducted a study analysing the Alternative for Germany, published shortly before the 2014 European election. findings were

english short version

...far from certain if the AfD party leadership can resolve its severe inner-party battles. Also, it is an open question as to how its electorate can be held together, encompassing protest voters, relatively wealthy economically liberals, as well as conservative voters alike... AfD so dangerous is that it is not a classical right-wing populist party with a charismatic leader, which could easily be attacked and denounced, especially given German history. Party chairman Bernd Lucke is a conservative professor of economics who comes across as unpretentious and stuffy. The ideological essence of the AfD is not based on cultural or anti-immigrant claims, but on the economic theory of ordoliberalism: the AfD stresses the economic competition between nations as a way to promote more wealth for all. It says it is against the Euro but not against the EU. As a study for the Otto Brenner Stiftung points out, the “competition populism” of the AfD paradoxically profits from the good economic performance of Germany, which allows the party to articulate “chauvinistic senses of superiority” under the heading of “competitiveness,” especially towards the southern European states.>Michael, Miebach (2 June 2014). "Germany: Haven of stability?". Das Progressives Zentrum. Retrieved 21 August 2014.</ref>

It was the former chairman of the CSU and Minister President of Bavaria, Franz-Josef Strauss, who famously said there must not exist a party in the political space to the right of the CDU/CSU. The AfD has the potential to prove him wrong. Senior Conservatives were stressing that David Cameron regards the CDU as the Conservative's sister party in Germany and he would ensure that the AfD were not admitted to the group. Though his ability to block the AfD from the grouping seemed diminished as the Conservatives no longer dominate the group following the 2014 European election, and membership is by a simple majority vote of the ECR membership. Conservative members are now equal to those of the Polish Law and Justice party, if ECR members vote to accept AfD, David Cameron could be powerless to stop their accession to the group even if he wanted to prevent the AfD from joining. Turning away the AfD though does have potential to weaken the group, ECR group lost 12 representatives in 2014 European election. and could potentially force the AfD into a group with UKIP. The Financial Times suggested that if the ECR accepted all of the potential members it could see an additional €6 million a year in funding. The Polish Law and Justice has also been openly flirting with the idea of joining another grouping. There exists a potential for Angela Merkel and the CDU to try and explode the ECR group which could potentially force the Conservatives back into EPP (having been staunchly against the Conservatives leaving that grouping in 2009) and other parties into more rightward groupings. Dr Merkel wants Mr Cameron to prevent Germany’s Euro-critical Alternative für Deutschland joining his Tories’ reformist bloc in parliament.http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/voters-want-answers-to-urgent-problems-says-sch%C3%A4uble-1.1811654

It also shows that those Tories keen for AfD to join the ECR group in the European Parliament may wish to pause for thought. risks becoming a catch-all populist party with strongly ideologically contradictory factions rather than one which can be easily placed on the traditional 'left/right' axis. This applies to a number of other European parties which combine elements of both including the National Front, PVV, the (True) Finns party and UKIP (although UKIP economic policy is more liberal than the others'). http://www.policyreview.eu/merkel-cameron-and-the-tory-meps-intent-on-mischief-making/

conservative MEP's twitter support of AfD's memebership of ECR as emerged that Merkel was still supporting Juncker for Commission presidency.

joining ECR wide open, try to form a block on their own if rejected, CDU criticism.

ECR Zahradil http://euobserver.com/eu-elections/124418

AfD lawmakers on Friday rejected German media reports that the ECR was delaying a decision on its membership because of Mr. Cameron’s concerns over upsetting Ms. Merkel at a crucial moment in the bargaining over top EU jobs. “We were the ones who asked for extra time, not the Tories,” said Hans-Olaf Henkel, who led the AfD ticket in the elections. Mr. Henkel, a former president of the Federation of German Industry, Germany’s most influential business lobby, said he had a very good impression of the Tories, but his party wanted to see first who else was going to join the ECR. Mr. Henkel said AfD, which has itself come under criticism for the far-right associations of some of its members, first wanted to talk to representatives of the two Nordic parties before taking a final decision on whether to join the ECR group.-http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/06/10/german-euroskeptics-become-bargaining-chip-in-battle-over-eu-jobs/

FT thought the delay was at Cameron's behest to delay the admission until after Cameron/Rutte/Reinfeldt/Merkel mini conference at Harpsund on June 9-10.“The AfD is currently experiencing an internal battle over whether it should be an economically liberal party or a catch-all populist party with a nationalist and protectionist flavour,” said Mats Persson, director of the Open Europe.-http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9bb3a518-f17b-11e3-a2da-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk#axzz34QcsuzX1

AfD ECR, criticism from Manfred Weber CSU, newly elected as head of EPP The AfD must address the question over why it wants to work together with extremist parties. During the election campaign, it always ruled out such an option. Again, this goes to show how disjointed the AfD is. I support cooperation with constructive forces in the European Parliament. Apparently that is not the case with the AfD.http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/epp-chairman-juncker-will-be-next-commission-president-302738

ECR admission

The vote led to an immediate backlash in Germany. The financial daily Handeslblatt led its website with a story under the headline: "Britain knights the AfD." (changed to Luckes new Friend)-http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/12/tory-european-group-riles-merkel-anti-german-party

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10894597/New-rift-between-Cameron-and-Merkel-as-rebel-Tory-MEPs-recruit-German-Eurosceptics.html

The vice-chairman of the CDU, Armin Laschet, said the AfD, which is becoming a serious challenge to Merkel on the right, had exposed its true nature by joining the ECR group."It is working with anti-German Polish nationalists in a group that is in favor of Turkish membership of the EU," he told Reuters. "This is AfD’s first breach of its word to its voters." ... The vote on admitting the AfD was meant to take place last week but was postponed, a sign that Cameron was uncomfortable with rocking the boat while he negotiated over Juncker. The fact that it went ahead on Thursday and was not delayed again suggests that negotiation effort may have failed. Admission to the ECR confers international respectability ...

In group with Independent Greeks who have in the past called for Germany to pay war reparations, while the AfD calls for Greece to be thrown out the Euro.

The AfD is good for German democracy and it features some sensible people (and some less so).

The same goes for trade deals with the rest of the world. The AfD recently came out against the pending EU-US free trade deal (TTIP) “calling it unfair and to [Germany’s] disadvantage”, reflecting the internal battle within the party between economic liberals and populists who see protectionism as an easy vote winner.

Political orientation

The political orientation of the AfD has been the subject of much debate, with the party itself unable to even agree a broad ideological designation at the Erfurt convention in March 2014. The party is most commonly described with the terms Euro-sceptic, conservative and liberal, but even these appellations often require further qualification to accurately reflect the positions the party occupies. Another factor in accurately identifying the overall party philosophy are the sometimes ideologically contradictory factions which are woven into the party corpus, sometimes overlapping, sometimes diverging entirely, which make it difficult to place the party on the traditional 'left/right' axis.

pollsters say the AfD is being seen by a growing number of voters as a legitimate, democratic party to the right of the CDU, and less like a flash in the pan... "The AfD is establishing itself as a national conservative party, the kind that couldn't emerge after 1949 (when West Germany was founded) but has a tradition in pre-war Germany," said Ulrike Guerot of the Open Society Initiative for Europe.-http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/15/uk-germany-eurosceptics-insight-idUKKBN0EQ0ER20140615 -German eurosceptics go mainstream in threat to Merkel-

Oskar Niedermeyer a political scientist at the FUB "From its manifesto, the AfD is a neoliberal, national conservative party. The problem is that several of its members have taken a rightwing stance on certain issues, and in Saxony some of the election slogans lining the streets converged on those of the overtly far-right nationalist NPD."

The party succeeded this time (eastern elections) by embracing conservative values, focussing less on the Euro. It advocates an end to immigration** Canadian style immigration, more support for families and less social spending. Unlike other postwar rightwing parties, the AfD’s appeal extends well beyond the fringe. The party has, by and large, managed to keep a distance from extremists.

Supporter base

the AfD has taken votes from essentially every party, including some previous non-voters.The party doesn't have any real voter base yet, which makes for huge fluctuations. Some voters have chosen this party out of pure protest. But over 75 percent of the voters said they chose the AfD because of its stance on actual issues. It seems that the party has been able to branch away from its stigma of being a one-topic party, namely its euroskeptic stance - which is how the party came across during European elections in May. It now encompasses very conservative social positions, for instance in the areas of family and immigration policy.Niedermeyer FUB

Some AfD sympathisers say they yearn for a stronger leader than Chancellor Angela Merkel, who they see as overcautious. “We need leaders like [past chancellors] Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt. They were real men. They were in the war. Today it’s all puppets and PR,” said Hartmut Merboldt, a 53-year-old engineer attending an AfD rally.

Party support largely initially drawn from To some extent this is not surprising given that even in its early stages the party paradoxically drew disproportionate support from former FDP and Die Linke voters.

OUB also noted after the elections that the party had done particularly well in Eastern Germany, which tends to vote more heavily for left-wing parties than West Germany. Party more popular in eastern states where voters are more willing to change party affiliation. In the East, AfD has also struggled to contain creeping take-over attempts by more nationalist elements.

Forschungsgruppe Wahlen most striking aspect to voters was gender gap with 9% men and only 5% women voting for the party.

Outside the party

The AfD has been labelled as conservative, libertarian, populist, rightwing, eurosceptic, a protest party, nationalist... the party intentionally avoids describing itself as left or right wing, does not exist on a traditional left-right political spectrum. Deutsche Welle as a merging of economic liberals and conservatives... deemed "a kind of German Tea Party" on Germany's popular public Tagesschau television show. Germany's traditional political parties have labelled AfD's platform as populist and nationalist. Other commentators have rejected such terms, but do classify the AfD as a protest party.

Green Youth describe AfD on their website as "right-wing, racist, nationalist, anti-semitic and Islamophobic," Former member as AfD 1950's ideas of family and religious

But some critics see the AfD as nothing less than the latest attempt to revive German nationalism, despite its terrible history, and using the euro crisis to gain support. One political opponent recently condemned Mr Lucke as a “disguised salon fascist”.

American Old Right or European Socialist left in terms of protectionism and isolationism. As it has grown, AfD has combined a more socially conservative policy agenda with populist rhetoric. its desire to reverse European integration and talk up the German national interest is complete anathema to the mainstream German political discourse and even its mere existence is controversial.

Oskar Niedermayer "based on policies AfD is a rightwing populist party, from an economic perspective supports free markets, from a socio-political viewpoint is a nationalist and conservative party". Former member Franz Niggemann said party had a narrow definition of family, which was rooted in religion and 1950's era values, likely the party was unwelcoming to minorities and unaccepting of those with alternative lifestyles. Niggeman, defections, and some policy-http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/12/alternative-deutschland-german-afd-politics-europe Tea Party epithet is generally seen a pejorative.

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party represents a German form of chauvinism, (Otto Brenner foundation report )

the “competition populism” of the AfD paradoxically profits from the good economic performance of Germany, which allows the party to articulate “chauvinistic senses of superiority” under the heading of “competitiveness,” especially towards the southern European states.

As the euro crisis rolls on, Germany’s crisis debate is increasingly shot through with a uniquely German brand of prosperity chauvinism. With no sense of economic hardship here, periphery countries are condemned as “debt sinners” who need to “do their homework” to boost economic competitiveness and reduce deficits in exchange for financial assistance. Criticisms directed at Germany from its neighbours – the wider economic and social effects of extended periods of austerity measures, for instance – have not gained traction in the debate here. When Angela Merkel is criticised, it is not for being too tough, but for being too soft.

Within the party

Party leader Bernd Lucke speaks of the party as being neither left nor right, but interested in applying "correct", "pragmatic" and "economically sound" solutions to Europe's problems. http://news.yahoo.com/german-eurosceptic-leader-says-infighting-wont-rip-party-113812369.html

In a post-Federal Election debate on the Anne Will political show Bernd Lucke was somewhat reluctant to identify the party as belonging to the right of the political spectrum instead referring to it as a "party of common sense." One thing he insists on clarifying is that his "euro-scepticism" is directed at the currency called the euro, not at the European Union (EU) In an interview with ITN party spokeswoman Frauke Petry said completely disagreed with is the labelling of the AfD as the “anti-euro party”, stating that this representation was "way off the mark.”

Ordoliberalism

first founded, it was derided as a fringe party for professors obsessed with Ordoliberalism early 2014 saw several members leave, citing a lurch rightwards as they believed the party was abandoning liberal foundations. with party adopting more traditional christian moral values and taking a tough stance on immigration. departure of several high profile members (Dagmar Metzger, Jörg Burger, Thomas Rang) was motivated by a significant increase of authoritarianism within the party, along with its growing radical right-wing, nationalistic, and even anti-Semitic leanings.

The ideological essence of the AfD is not based on cultural or anti-immigrant claims, but on the economic theory of ordoliberalism: the AfD stresses the economic competition between nations as a way to promote more wealth for all. As a study for the Otto Brenner Foundation Stiftung points out, the “competition populism” of the AfD paradoxically profits from the good economic performance of Germany, which allows the party to articulate “chauvinistic senses of superiority” under the heading of “competitiveness,” especially towards the southern European states.

initially right influence on social policy only, but after a speech at Erfurt conference by Beatrix von Storch, the party membership voted to reject the EU-US TTIP trade deal. try to remain economically liberal. Hans-Olaf Henkel Henkel claimed von Storch wielded little influence within the party, but she has been able to give the leadership some headaches. A speech she held to oppose the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the United States and the EU, was greeted with thunderous applause at the party convention. The membership narrowly agreed with her and rejected the free-trade deal, much to the chagrin of Henkel and party leader Lücke.

Despite this, Henkel hinted that he would probably support the TTIP as an MEP in Brussels. Though in an interview with Euractive he stated that he could not be for or against the TTIP until he had seen what what its content will be, saying "This point is being completely underestimated by those in our party who have a relatively limited knowledge of economics. Apparently, the less familiar someone is with economics, the louder their criticism."

various opinions on the TTIP within the AfD, HOH stated "Although we are for free trade, we have said that we will reject a resolution at this time because we are not familiar with the agreement."

if talks mediated with British Conservatives via Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists conservatism and economic liberalism, representing eurosceptic centre-right position. AECR alongside Poland's Law and Justice, Czech Republic's Civic Democratic Party and associate member Canada's Conservative Party.

party advocates direct democracy

Pegida

HOH - called on party in Handelsblatt "In the wake of our successful election results, some people on the bridge are orienting themselves not by the light of the stars – that being our election manifesto – but by the lights of other passing vessels, such as Pegida"

Pegida nominated the former member of AfD Tatjana Festerling for mayor of Dresden, who had been seen as "problematic" by the AfD since praising a "Hooligans against Salafists" demonstration in her home town of Cologne in October 2014. -http://www.dw.de/pegida-nominates-tatjana-festerling-for-mayor-of-dresden/a-18364105

Party Factions

At this early stage 2013, there appear to be three main pools of support.

• First: a large number of German professors and academics who dislike the compromises inflicted on their purist theories by the reality of mainstream party politics.
• A second group of well-off, middle-class voters, utterly untouched by a euro crisis, who fear a plot to plunder their savings.
• A third group of publicity-hungry soldiers of fortune and political extremists who hop on every political bandwagon that passes by in Germany, but soon disembark again.

united by a two-decade dislike of the single currency and a conviction that the crisis chaos can be harnessed to demand radical change. The political orientation of the AfD is hard to characterise simply, as several internal and sometimes overlapping factions within the party...

which developed into a situation after the 2013 elections

"The political debate in the AfD never ran between liberals and conservatives […] The dividing line runs between the middle classes, liberals and conservatives, and the German national reactionaries. It runs between modernity and anti-modernity, both in the imagination of society as well as of the role of nation-states.” Former member Thomas Rang wrote after quitting the party.

AfD are at risk of becoming a catch-all populist party with strongly ideologically contradictory factions rather than one which can be easily placed on the traditional 'left/right' axis.

Much will depend on Lucke's ability to retain control of the party. Lucke, for many years a member of the CDU, has been adamant that he will steer clear of right-wing populism proper (whether he adhered to this principle during the campaign is a different question). His vision of the AfD amounts to a market-liberal, socially conservative, EU-sceptic centre-right party. Once his voters realise that this is what he is standing for, a considerable number of them is bound to desert the party.

Political scientist Alexander Haeusler, of Duesseldorf University of Applied Sciences, said the challenge was to unify a party base that falls into three factions -- neo-liberal, national conservative and a hard-right populist wing"The party finds itself in a paradoxical situation," he told AFP,"It can occupy the space that`s been left vacant in Germany to the right of the conservatives, but only if it manages to incarnate these three strands, while handling its internal conflicts at the same time," http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/germanys-anti-euro-party-split-over-pegida-ties_1538068.html

"The party has two wings, which are now openly competing," Alexander Gauland, one of the party's leading figures, told ARD television."On the one side there is the euro-critical position and a liberalist economic policy stance, focused around Bernd Lucke," Gauland said, adding that national conservatives like him made up the other flank.http://www.dw.de/german-euroskeptic-lucke-very-grateful-to-greece-syriza/a-18229026

A year or so ago, we used to talk about “liberals”, “conservatives”, and a third faction in the middle which tried to build bridges. But now, we’re apparently down to two “wings”: Lucke’s economic liberals (who are also socially conservative), and those who want a tougher, more nationalist party. Incidentally, this split seems to be reinforced by an East-West conflict within the AfD, with the electorally successful Eastern chapters more inclined to play the right-wing populist card.http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/afd-wings-fluegel-update/

Former Christian Unionists/Ordoliberalists

Bernd Lucke He argues that the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats, has lost its character. Before the emergence of AFD, the CSU used to be one of Germany's most conservative parties, more so even than Merkel's own CDU...joining the youth group of the Christian Democrats at the age of 14. He says he was a big fan of Heiner Geißler, a popular conservative leader at the time who, like a good number of Christian Democrats, has moved to the center or even left over the years. It's this chameleon-like nature in the CDU that ultimately led to Lucke's frustration with the party -- he says its politics have veered too far away from his own views, particularly in the course of the global economic and euro crises.

something has to be done about the euro. "It is clearly harming Europe," says Jörg Meuthen, an economics professor from Kehl and European parliament candidate. "In this party we are about facts, evidence, reason. Not ideologies. And the clear facts, we have to face it, are that while the common market is a success story – it works, it has increased prosperity, it has brought us together – the common currency is precisely the reverse. It does not work. It has reduced prosperity. It is pushing us apart."-http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/brussels-braced-influx-eurosceptics-parties-european-union-polls

are former CDU supporters, such as former Secretary of State Alexander Gauland of Hesse.

Christian conservatism

Beatrix von Storch,- who for many epitomises the party's recent lurch towards conservatism.

Beatrix von Storch. Known as the “figurehead of the national-conservative scene in Germany”, she has been characterised as an evangelist in the mode of the US Tea Party. She has publicly spoken out against the rights of gay people and Muslims. Furthermore, the religiously motivated group represented by von Storch, who is number four on the AfD’s list of candidates for the European elections, denies the right to abortion, opposes any kind of euthanasia, and is convinced that Turkey does not belong within the EU. FORSA institute, says the AfD does not pose a threat to the conservative CDU/CSU. CDU/CSU voters tend to be religious and pro-Europe. AfD voters, on the other hand, are typically unaffiliated with any religion and often adhere to conspiracy theories.

The AfD, a party founded in 2013 to call for Germany's withdrawal from the Euro, has increasingly veered toward social conservativism. Christians have founded their own "circle" in the party and Beatrix von Storch, a former FDP polician known for her opposition to abortion and same-sex partnerships, has risen to prominence. The Baden-Württemberg wing of the party has also criticized the state government's sexual education policy for its attempt to normalize same-sex relationships.

Beatrix von Storch is the figurehead of the AfD's Christian-conservative camp and is in fourth place on the party's European candidate list. She leads various associations which harken back to values of the American Tea Party movement: supporting parents' right to school their children at home, abstinence, the traditional family structure, and opposing homosexuality.

Beatrix von Storch, The Handelsblatt quoted in an analysis of the Greens politician Volker Beck , of the party as a "vacuum cleaner for everything romps on the right side of the CDU and to the right", and von Storch as with regard to the role of stork in the AfD "Head of a right-wing populist alliance "referred, in particular, against the equality of homosexuals make mobile, and summed up that the party with members such as von Storch " right-wing open flows ". [13] [25]

According to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to von Storch in this election by the internal party group Christians in the alternative for Germany have been supported. This sat down, inter alia, in its Declaration of Principles for a ban on abortion, a ban on euthanasia and the rejection of the equality of same-sex partnerships. -"Bible-loyal Protestants" [27] Prior to this nomination had von Storch, according to reports of the mirror , and the Taz the alleged power of a so-called gay lobby denounced. [28] [29]

Hans-Olaf Henkel Henkel claimed von Storch wielded little influence within the party, but she has been able to give the leadership some headaches. A speech she held to oppose the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the United States and the EU, was greeted with thunderous applause at the party convention. The membership narrowly agreed with her and rejected the free-trade deal, much to the chagrin of Henkel and party leader Lücke.

Despite this, Henkel hinted that he would probably support the TTIP as an MEP in Brussels.

Kolibri

Conservative and Liberal element, criticised as being a FDP 2.0.-http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/alternative-fuer-deutschland-die-angst-in-der-afd-vor-einer-fdp-2-0/9375222.html

Liberal wing

A Liberal Wing, In its own mind, the AfD is classically liberal in philosophy and otherwise pro-European -- it intentionally avoids labelling itself as left- or right-wing. Gauland liberal element clearly in top candidates Hans-Olaf Henkel stated in January 2014 "the AfD is Germany's last liberal party”,

while Bernd Lucke has stated "I am not a liberal"., helped prompt the resignation of Dagmar Metzger when says Lucke: "I am a Christian Democrat" and Lucke, who calls the employment of women, "a" problem "and long sat in the council of his Evangelical Reformed Church.-http://www.faz.net/aktuell/afd-kritisiert-rechte-von-schwulen-und-muslime-12837646.html

Rise of AfD mirrored by the decline and collapse in FDP Among the FDP’s traditional supporters were conservative nationalists. Many of them have defected to the AfD because it has clearer conservative credentials.

Hans-Olaf Henkel, a leading member of the AfD`s neo-liberal wing-http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/germanys-anti-euro-party-split-over-pegida-ties_1538068.html

Right-wing populism/‘der Flügel’

By 2015 AfD had largely become split between liberal conservatives and a group which became known as...

‘der Flügel’ (the wing, or tendency)-http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/putsch-in-the-afd/

Aspects of the party openly flirted with UKIP, would have liked to have seen the party in alliance in the European Parliament. Most prominent among the Junge Alternative youth organisation, who invited Farage to address their meeting. The party leadership have stressed that they are against the Euro currency, and not the EU, however within the party a growing faction of hard Euroscepticism, which influences party, particularly conference where much debate over the Mut zu Deutschland party slogan in the campaign for EU election 2014.

Many within the party ranks would have preferred the party team with UKIP. One of the renegades (who invited Farage) is now an MEP and has called Lucke's strategy (of not appealing to populism) into doubt again on election night, and one local party chapter wanted to force an intra-party referendum on the issue.

I don’t like the expression ‘rightwing populist’. But populism can be good,” says Philipp Ritz, chairman of the Junge Alternative, the party’s independent youth arm. The 32-year-old pharmaceuticals executive adds: “Doing something in the interests of Germany always led in the past to accusations of rightwing extremism. But the AfD does want policies which are for Germany.”

Critics claim that underneath the polite exterior lurk elements of rightwing populismhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5ca0247c-f244-11e3-9e59-00144feabdc0.html

Moderates and liberals

see Weckruf 2015

Internal disputes

Infighting and factionalism in Berlin, Hesse and Bavaria, could lead to alienation of voter base and political wilderness. Hesse problems-http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/hessen-afd-parteitag-endet-im-streit-12679077.html

[January 2014] Hesse leader fired, state treasurer questions how people the hierarchy find undesirable got into the state party structures. first time the party polling below the 5% bundestag representation threshold since september despite the success up to the september election the party remains frail.http://www.dw.de/crises-mount-for-germanys-euroskeptical-afd/a-17342637

Party members shot down plans to create a new governing structure for the party put forward by Bernd Lucke, the party’s top candidate for the European elections and one of three speakers for the party’s federal board. Lucke had envisaged merging the three federal board speaker posts into one prominent leadership position, which he himself would have filled. The move was seen as an attempt by Lucke to take sole power, and as a result, the party’s members refused to support him.

the AfD party suffers from heavy political infighting between the different groups inside the party.73 This is reflected in both the party’s attempt to expand its issue portfolio beyond the euro (to family, education, and Islam) and in its European manifesto.

Lacking structures and riven by personal disputes, the AfD still struggles to maintain discipline.

http://www.todayonline.com/world/strife-racks-germanys-eurosceptic-afd-despite-popularity

Summer 2014 (see also Russia Ukraine)

Differences began to flare in the lead-up to state elections in the summer of 2014.

Russian criticism from Bernd Lucke, with Alexander Gauland, author of the AfD's 2013 foreign policy direction paper, and lead candidate in the state election of Brandenburg threatening to withdraw from the election

arose from votes cast by Lucke and three (H-OH, Kölmel, Starbatty) other members of the EU parliament in support of sanctions on Russia

One of the party's current co-chairs, Frauke Petry, criticized Lucke for the latter's support of sanctions against Russia (Bremen 2015), and noted that the US and NATO are far more dangerous for European and global security than Russia.http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150201/1017626025.html

Bremen 2015

More than 2,000 people have confirmed their attendance for the conference, happening Saturday and Sunday in Bremen, though 3,000 registered to attend, those figures make this potentially the largest party conference to be held in post-war Germany.any registered party member could attend. With a post-war record 2,200 delegates, the AfD party congress is more than twice as large as Merkel's CDU party meetings-http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/150130/turmoil-at-congress-germany-party-swiping-votes-merkel

Dispute over Bernd Lucke's plan to become sole party leader was raised again before the party Bremen meeting January 2015.http://www.dw.de/cracks-appear-in-leadership-of-german-euroskeptic-afd-party/a-18169314 http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/01/03/germany-politics-eurosceptics-idINKBN0KC0CY20150103 Lucke again attempt to become sole leader, change party constitution -http://www.taz.de/!152057/

liberal members fear the party will shift into a right-wing party without Lucke

Petry and Adam, as well as the head of the Brandenburg faction of the party, Alexander Gauland, think this is the wrong direction. They fear that Lucke in charge will mean that the party will focus on Lucke's priority of criticising the eurozone.

Other party members, like Gauland, want the party to align itself with the populist Pegida movement and bring party focus out of economics to a broader scope. Petry, who represents the party in Saxony where the Pegida movement has held its near-weekly marches in Dresden, is also looking to join forces with the populist group. In an interview earlier this week, Gauland said that all immigration from the Middle East should be stopped. "We should no longer support immigration by people who are totally foreign cultural tradition, in fact, we ought to block it," Gauland told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Dispute over Bernd Lucke's plan to become sole party leader was raised again before the party Bremen meeting January 2015.http://www.dw.de/cracks-appear-in-leadership-of-german-euroskeptic-afd-party/a-18169314 http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/01/03/germany-politics-eurosceptics-idINKBN0KC0CY20150103 - tensions in the party brewing as Lucke old school CDU (and/or liberal) vs those more willing to embrace right wing populism.

And the AfD risks losing support among euroskeptics and businesspeople who aren’t necessarily social conservatives and could be turned off by anti-Islam rhetoric.-http://www.wsj.com/articles/upstart-german-party-considers-anti-islam-stance-1422482362

The party is now at a crossroads ahead of an election in the city-state of Hamburg next month. If the AfD enters the regional assembly, it would mark its first major success in western Germany, establishing the party as a national force and strengthening Lucke. Should the AfD fail in Hamburg, the influence of more right-leaning members behind the party's victories in the east and who are flirting with anti-Islam protesters in Dresden, will grow.-http://news.yahoo.com/german-eurosceptic-party-crossroads-key-election-135933663.html

"The AfD has been trying to cover a vast range, from those backing liberal economic policies to the national conservative patriots and all the way to the swamps of the far-right," said Thomas Jaeger, a political scientist at Cologne University."They've tried to paper over the underlying conflict but that's blowing up in their faces," he said. "It's make or break time for the AfD. Either they'll sort it out or they're doomed."-http://news.yahoo.com/german-eurosceptic-party-crossroads-key-election-135933663.html

Lucke wants to change its charter at party congress on Jan. 31, giving the party one leader instead of three. For that, his two co-chairs called him a "despot-style leader". Lucke ally Hans-Olaf Henkel called them "scurrilous". The AfD tried to defuse the dispute by agreeing to have two leaders from April and one from December. Lucke will face off then against co-chair Frauke Petry, AfD leader in the eastern state of Saxony.-http://news.yahoo.com/german-eurosceptic-party-crossroads-key-election-135933663.html

"We believe there should be two wings to this party reflected in the leadership," Gauland told Reuters.-http://news.yahoo.com/german-eurosceptic-party-crossroads-key-election-135933663.html

Erfurt Resolution

Main article: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurter_Resolution Erfurter Resolution (wiki de)

(resolution website: http://derfluegel.de/ )

In March 2015 Björn Höcke, a party chairman in Thuringia, published a document known as the Erfurt Resolution (Erfurter Resolution) in which he accused the party leadership of a “betrayal” of its founding ideals. This document was signed by 1,400 party members, and is thought to have been strongly supported by younger party members. Also found support from eastern state boards, who have been involved in dispute with Lucke regarding the party structure, Russia and relations with Pegida.

signature list includes Alexander Gauland (verify)

The initiative has been interpreted as having a more nationalistic and conservative theme.

The resolution has also caused serious upset amongst more centrist party members. One financial donation to the AfD summer congress recently came with the message “so that the AfD remains a civic alternative and doesn't mutate into an far right splinter party. No to Björn Höcke!”.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/german-eurosceptic-leader-says-infighting-wont-rip-party-113812369.html#f5EH90c

MEPs Bernd Kölmel , Ulrike Trebesius , Hans-Olaf Henkel and Joachim Starbatty organized then a counter-resolution named Germany-resolution , among other things, six regional chairman himself - including Jörn Kruse (Hamburg) -. joined [5] http://deutschland-resolution.de/

Henkel called the Erfurt resolution a " grotesque attempt to divide the AfD "and warned of" spin Erten nationalist views "and anti-Americanism . [6] [7]

http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/putsch-in-the-afd/

In Thuringia, Björn Höcke refused to sign an affidavit regarding his alleged ties to the right-wing extremist NPD. The national leadership threatened to retaliate with – what?http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/germanys-afd-state-of-play/

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The AfD’s national leadership is currently pondering the merits of a referendum by party members on the AfD’s future course. If such a referendum is held and results in a draw, the party might well split, otherwise, an exodus of the losing side and their political marginalisation is the most likely scenario.-Arzheimer blog

Hans-Olaf Henkel steps down as AFD deputy chair

Issue of Pretzell cited by Hans-Olaf Henkel as one of the reasons he stepped down as party deputy chairman in April 2015. HOH remain in AfD but ... “right-wing ideologues” are taking over the party, and further opposed linking the party with the Pegida movement. resigned from the AfD's federal board, its main executive body.

Mixed reaction from prominent party members, with Konrad Adam stating that this was a departure of a "market dogmatist" and rightwing outlier citing Henkel's support of TTIP, and that it could strengthen the party centrists by delimiting (abgrenzen) those economic dogmatists on one hand and the nationalist dogmatists on the other. Alexander Gauland expressed regret that HOH had left, loss of a well-known party figure. Admitting that there had been tension among the federal executive.

Diefenbach followed by Patricia Casale who said she had no choice left but to step down from the federal board.http://www.freiewelt.net/casale-geht-pretzell-fliegt-10058700/

Hans-Olaf Henkel goes after fellow MEP Marcus Pretzell. Henkel demands Pretzell’s “immediate expulsion from the delegation.”http://www.politico.eu/article/cat-fight-on-german-right/

Weckruf 2015

In May 2015 Bernd Lucke launched an in-party association Weckruf 2015 (Wake up call 2015) for the moderate/liberal grouping within the AfD, in opposition to the group of Petry, Gauland and Konrad Adam, in the east. after having to deny that he was forming his own new party-within-a-party, with MEPs Hans-Olaf Henkel, Bernd Kölmel and Joachim Starbatty denying they were setting up an alternate party, but a call to stick to the founding principles of the party and not drift to the right. Trebesius also signed Weckruf.-http://www.ksta.de/politik/machtkampf-mit-frauke-petry-lucke-droht-mit-gruendung-neuer-partei---von-storch-fordert-austritt,15187246,30726334.html

Launch of this wake-up-call was met by Frauke Petry, may contest the leadership with Bernd Lucke, stating that she thought Bernd Lucke had “disqualified himself to lead the party” after forming the group. in leadership contest at Kassel meeting in June.

Beatrix Von Storch, asked for Lucke to clarify if this was a re-establishment party, and to immediately exclude the formation of a new party, or leave the AFD.-http://www.ksta.de/politik/machtkampf-mit-frauke-petry-lucke-droht-mit-gruendung-neuer-partei---von-storch-fordert-austritt,15187246,30726334.html

Petry has emerged as leader of Eastern/flugel with support from Gauland and Petry met with Pegida, more anti-immigration tone.

http://www.dw.de/german-euroskeptic-afd-leader-lucke-threatens-party-departure/a-18457563 http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21651876-after-two-lively-years-new-eurosceptic-party-may-split-rift-right

court of arbitration says grouping violated party rules, disbanded-http://www.dw.com/en/right-wing-politician-bernd-lucke-suffers-setback-ahead-of-afd-leadership-vote/a-18537419

Cancellation of 2015 Summer convention

To be held in June Lucke had hoped for the AfD vote on paring down leadership from 3 to 2, to be followed by by another vote later in the year to reduce this to a single leader.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d7323ce0-092a-11e5-881f-00144feabdc0.html in Kasselhttp://www.dw.de/in-leadership-tussle-euroskeptic-afd-calls-off-party-conference/a-18491629 due to court questions how regional delegates chosen http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/court-query-delays-party-congress-for-germanys-eurosceptics_394663.html

Essen party conference and Petry leadership

Essen party convention 4-5 July 2015 Ahead of convention Bernd Lucke proposed 32 year old André Yorulmaz as party general secretary, (businessman of part-turkish origin who is in a same-sex relationship) and MEP Ulrike Trebesius as deputy. http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/german-eurosceptic-party-leader-taps-consensus-builder-for-top-job_399693.

Frauke Petry elected to be leader of the party, with 60% of the votes, Lucke did not stand to be deputy so she is only office-bearing...http://www.dw.com/en/germanys-euroskeptic-afd-elects-conservative-leader-petry/a-18561912 http://www.dw.com/en/germanys-euroskeptic-afd-party-seeks-to-heal-deep-rifts/a-18561343

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/afd-founder-ousted-after-party-conference-putsch-1.2274412

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In the aftermath 4 MEP's and Bernd Lucke left the party, with Lucke citing the rise of xenophobic and pro-Russian sentiments in the party.

Controversies

Michel Friedman TV show walk out

Michel Friedman February 2014 (see Beatrix von Storch (de)) Finally, there are efforts to confront the AfD in both television and newspaper debates. Among the most popular was a television debate between Manuel Sarrazin, the European policy spokesperson from the Greens, and Bernd Lucke, AfD leader, and moderated by Michel Friedman. The moderator insisted on one of his questions that referred to alleged racist statements by the AfD's number four on the EP list, Beatrix von Storch. Lucke did not want to answer, so he left the studio. translated Youtube of the incident.

Specifically, the paper (Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung) quoted Beatrix von Storch, one of the AfD's candidates in the European election, who said, "Multiculturalism's task is to homogenize the peoples, and to eradicate their culture and religion.""

-"After repeatedly refusing to allow Lucke to finish speaking, and after attempting to associate him with “the extreme Right scene” and pummel him with what Lucke finally called the “right wing populism cudgel”, Friedman insisted on reading the following “racist” quotation, for the second time, while falsely attributing it to Lucke’s AfD candidate, Beatrix von Storch, although it was later found to come from Roland Woldag’s essay:

“Multiculti”… has the task of homogenising the people … and in this way to extinguish them religiously and culturally.”

Friedman then attempted to force Lucke to either stand behind the “racist” quotation or discredit his own candidate. The following 1:27 minute subtitled video shows the climax of the situation, as Bernd Lucke leaves the studio after Friedman drowns him out, refusing to allow him a chance to finish speaking to the quotation." http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/03/after-the-enabling-act-overcoming-socialism/

N24-moderator Michel Friedman, to disenchant the AfD with their own statements, AfD won a legal challenge in the Landgericht Berlin,

Dregs

2013 Federal election Bernd Lucke referred to foreigners living on social welfare as dregs of society, but later clarified that he had meant.... during last year's parliamentary campaign he referred to poor migrants as Bodensatz, or dregs, But in this campaign he has succeeded in toeing a moderate conservative line.

Even Mr Lucke has tripped up. During last year’s parliamentary campaign, he referred to poor migrants as “Bodensatz” – “dregs”. He later said he was talking about saving migrants from becoming “dregs” but apologised. He has not, however, apologised for referring last year to “the degeneration of democracy” – a phrase the Nazis used to describe the Weimar Republic’s failure to bring social stability to Germany.

At a campaign event in September, Bernd Lucke spoke of immigration to Germany. Foreigners who lack an understanding of the German language and without sufficient education should not be allowed into Germany, the politician told Germany's second-largest newspaper by circulation, the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Such a policy is for Germany's own protection, he said, since such immigrants could only live on social welfare. "Then they form a kind of social sediment - one that remains for life in our welfare system," he said at the event.

Islam

(see also Pegida) Bernd Lucke questioned comments made by former president Christian Wolff about muslim religion being a part of Germany, Although Lucke has subsequently explained that it was not hostile to Islam meant, but that can only be seen as attempt not to lose the anti-Islamic forces in the party.

AfD leaders have sailed close to the wind. Mr Lucke, for example, argued in a recent speech that while Muslims had rights to live in Germany, the building of mosques with minarets should be subject to local referendums. He said: “Do we want more Islam in Germany? In my opinion: No.”

in the weeks after the 2015 Charlie_Hebdo_shootings Angela Merkel saying repeatedly in recent weeks that “Islam belongs in Germany.”http://www.wsj.com/articles/upstart-german-party-considers-anti-islam-stance-1422482362

Expulsion of Jan-Ulrich Weiß

The party expelled Jan-Ulrich Weiß, who already excluded from the party's 11 member delegation to the state parliament. after he displayed an anti-semitic cartoon on his Facebook page which was later deleted.http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4575889,00.html with state AfD leader Alexander Gauland accusing Weiss of posting a caricature in the style of Nazi newspaper "Der Stürmer."

HOH racism allegations

HOH 2010 open letter from William K. Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law, University of Missouri - Kansas City. racism allegations made of HOH as Bank of America's Senior Advisor in Germany-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/open-letter-to-bofa-chair_b_453801.html [Before the AfD even existed]

Irregularities involving Marcus Pretzell

mess up parties credit ratings.http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/afd-landesvorsitzender-marcus-pretzell-soll-offenbarungseid-leisten-13493927.html -http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/afd-wings-fluegel-update/

Marcus Pretzell, who is party leader in NRW and one of the AfD’s MEPs, has been investigated by the party’s national exec following financial irregularities. The report recommends that Pretzell should keep his seat in Brussels but resign from the NRW leadership, because he was not able to deal with the demands of his private and political life. Unsurprisingly, Pretzell refused to step down, and threatened to disturb the upcoming election campaign in Bremen.Arzheimer blog

The North Rhine-Westphalian AfD Arbitration checks whether Pretzell is legally in office, because he did not have at the time of his choice on a residence in North Rhine-Westphalia.-

NRW party conference cancelled April 2015, Marcus Pretzell expected to be unseated as leader of NRW party at conference.-http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/blogposts

Pretzell not unseated by deputy and deputy himself resigns-http://www.kai-arzheimer.com/germanys-afd-state-of-play/

Accusations in end proved false-http://www.latribune.fr/economie/union-europeenne/les-eurosceptiques-allemands-en-route-vers-l-extreme-droite-477281.html

Rechts überholen -To the right of the Union, there shall be nothing

Question of whether there is there additional space within the political and democratic spectrum of Germany to the right of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU)? Or have parts of the AfD already crossed the line once drawn by former Bavarian prime minster Franz Josef Strauss?

unwillingness to engage with new party by political mainstream might stem from

The position of the party CDU/CSU's rechts überholen policy developed by Franz-Josef Strauss in the late 1960s, to not allow any party to establish to the right of the coalition, "on the right of Christian democracy, there shall not be anything". Which saw the marginalisation of the NPD.

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/german-left-blames-cdu-populist-surge-302382 same though helmut kohl http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21603045-voters-legitimise-new-party-voice-anti-euro-right-alternative-becomes-real it has enough strength to shake the foundations of the conservative party, which lost far more voters to the AfD than any other party. It was the former chairman of the CSU and Minister President of Bavaria, Franz-Josef Strauss, who famously said there must not exist a party in the political space to the right of the CDU/CSU. The AfD has the potential to prove him wrong.-http://www.policy-network.net/pno_detail.aspx?ID=4659&title=Germany-Haven-of-stability

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21603045-voters-legitimise-new-party-voice-anti-euro-right-alternative-becomes-real

Weckruf Wake Up Call

18/19 July meeting in Kasselhttp://www.bnr.de/artikel/aktuelle-meldungen/afd-light-mit-lucke-getreuen

Political influence?

Reported by Der Spiegel that CSU politicians were with an eye to European Parliament elections in May 2014 during the coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD introducing policies to try and draw votes away from the AfD. CSU calling for a smaller European Commission, national referendums of EU policies of particular importance, and members of the Eurozone unable to fulfil the stability criteria of the Maastricht Treaty to be given the opportunity to temporarily leave the Euro.

Compared to a number of statements made in the past about the euro crisis by the Bavarian party, this one was actually pretty reserved. Still, the message is clear -- the party wants bankrupt nations to leave the common currency. That's precisely the position the CSU unanimously agreed to at a party conference last year. Posselt criticised his party's campaign for having missed the chance to take a hard stance against the Eurosceptic Alternative für Deutschland (AfD): "One should never try to out-stink a skunk".http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/high-profile-casualties-european-parliament-elections-302581

Notably, the (CDU) manifesto even states that “a repatriation – Rückführung – of competences to the national level should be possible.” As the Open Europe blog points out, the word Rückführung is something of a rightwing populist dog whistle, for which several other, less connotative terms exist. Its deliberate use is therefore very revealing.http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/02/08/angela-merkel-tries-to-kill-the-afd-with-kindness/ http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/ruckfuhrung-alert-cdu-says-repatriation.html

Left party/AfD overlap -http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-elections-2014/german-left-party-eurosceptic-afd-our-political-opponent-302336

following a good old tradition. The Bavarian party is pursuing a two-fold strategy. On the one hand, the CSU Spitzenkandidat Markus Ferber, an MEP since 1994, is the candidate who represents the hard worker in the EP and should attract the Bavarians, who are clearly pro-European. Peter Gauweiler, on the other hand, is a well known eurosceptic who was promoted by CSU leader Horst Seehofer to CSU party deputy leader to attract the eurosceptic electorate and to oppose the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Bavaria.

ECRII

Ahead of the 2014 European Parliamentary elections there was a certain amount of speculation about the stability of the ECR, with the possibility that the Polish Law and Justice might seek another grouping. Most pundits thought the grouping would survive, with several new parties speculated to be looking into joining the group. Parties thought to be mulling applications for the grouping included the Alternative for Germany, Danish People's Party, Finns Party and New Flemish Alliance, Bulgaria Without Censorship and also some Croatian members. Slovakia's Freedom and Solidarity party represented by Richard Sulík was also reported to be considering joining the group, due to close links to the Alternative for Germany. The prospect that Forza Italia or the Hungarian Fidesz might also be tempted to move from the EPP to the ECR was raised, as they have adopted more eurosceptic profiles.

There was speculation that Angela Merkel was applying pressure on David Cameron to try and keep the Alternative für Deutschland out of European Conservatives and Reformists. Senior Conservatives were stressing that David Cameron regards the CDU as the Conservatives' sister party in Germany and he would ensure that the AfD were not admitted to the group. Though his ability to block the AfD from the grouping seemed diminished as the Conservatives no longer dominated the group following the 2014 European election, and membership is decided by a simple majority vote of the ECR membership.

Conservative members are now equal in number to those of the Polish Law and Justice party, if ECR members vote to accept AfD, David Cameron could be powerless to stop their accession to the group even if he wanted to prevent the AfD from joining. Turning away the AfD though does have the potential to weaken the group, as the ECR group lost 12 representatives in the 2014 European election, and could potentially force the AfD into a group with UKIP, which the leadership of the AfD would really rather not consider.

The Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan is speculated to have been advocating for the British Conservatives and AfD to link following EU elections via the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists with possible membership in the EU parliament grouping European Conservatives and Reformists, which was formed after the Conservatives withdrew from the European Democrats sub group of the European People's Party, to which Angela Merkel's CDU belong.

Some British Conservatives such as Timothy Kirkhope have shown some reluctance to be seen as too openly courting the AfD, should it damage relations with Angela Merkel's CDU, which they speculated could hinder attempts by the Conservative Party to renegotiate treaties before a proposed referendum on British EU membership in 2017. Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, has also been critical of any expansion of the ECR group, or even its survival, stating that to maintain the support of David Cameron's planned reform programme "if the Prime Minister wants to keep Angela Merkel onside anyway, they mustn’t touch the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) with a bargepole."

The political journalist Andrew Gimson writing at ConservativeHome was broadly positive about the possibility of the Conservatives working with AfD. Paul Goodman, editor of ConservativeHome has also been welcoming towards cooperation with AfD, playing down the risks that cooperation would affect the relationship between David Cameron and Angela Merkel.

The addition of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) could also be problematic for the Conservatives, the N-VA advocate Flemish separation from Belgium, which might sit uncomfortably with the Conservative stance on the Scottish independence referendum, 2014.

The Financial Times suggested that if the ECR accepted all of the potential members it could see an additional €6 million a year in funding.

On 4 June 2014 it was reported by the Financial Times that the ECR had accepted applications from the Danish People's Party (4 members), the Finns party (2 members), and one member each from the Family Party of Germany, two unnamed Slovakian parties and the Independent Greeks.

External Links

• BBC Newsnight: Interview with Bernd Lucke 12 June 2013
• BBC Daily Politics: Southern Europe out of euro says Alternative For Germany 13 June 2013
• Russia Today: Eurosceptic German Party ready to make waves in national elections 22 June 2013
• New German Party Declares War On Euro, by Claire Bigg 16 March 2013, retrieved 21 April 2013.

Reception

Eurosceptics in CDU and FDP

was not able to appease eurosceptic voters within its own ranks.