Only a year ago, the AfD was the target of an orchestrated media smear campaign, not to mention leftist government attempts to ban the party from elections. The same tactics have been used to stifle conservative and nationalist movements across Europe, but these movements are proving to be resilient. The latest Le Pen success story in France's small town areas runs in tandem with the latest news from Germany.
In the recent Rhineland-Palatinate state election, the Christian Democrats have, according to projections, won just over 30% of the vote and are well ahead of the leftist Social Democrats. However, the AfD is quickly catching up to the CDU, nearly doubling their seats in the same election with 20% of the voter share.
For reference, CDU is a mainstream center-right party that supports strong EU integration, social market economy, NATO alliances, and has governed for decades. AfD is a right-wing populist movement that demands the EU reform, near-zero immigration, and prioritizes German national sovereignty over international commitments.
The biggest gains went to the AfD, which, according to projections, comes in third. All three governing parties (SPD, Greens, and FDP) suffered significant losses. The CDU and Left Party’s enjoyed small gains of two to three percentage points. Meanwhile the AfD’s jump of more than eleven points is striking.
The AfD is clearly established as Germany's second-strongest party at the national level with 152 seats total. These gains position the right-wing populists as a strong opposition force and Party leader Alice Weidel is already promising “excellent opposition work”. They are currently challenging the CDU to explain how they are going to tackle Germany's mass immigration problem.
As noted above, Christian Democrats are considered "conservative", and the party continuously claims it wants secure borders and deportations. However, the CDU refuses to work with the AfD; CDU candidate Gordon Schnieder argues that the party would not join forces with the far-right.
"It would spell the downfall of this country if we were to bring the AfD on board here," he said. This is known as the "coalition firewall".
The refusal to work with the AfD means that Germany's immigration struggles are likely to continue. Leftist parties, despite losing significant ground, are still in a position to prevent any meaningful policy changes on borders and deportations. Some critics argue that the CDU is a "fake front" and not truly interested in taking on the progressive multiculturalists.
The AfD's best strategy is to make themselves a thorn in the side of the status quo parliamentary process until the CDU is willing to cooperate, or, the next elections in September give the AfD an even greater share of seats.
The biggest loser in the recent elections has been the Social Democrats (SPD). Following their debacle in the Baden-Württemberg state elections two weeks ago, the party has suffered another sharp loss in Rhineland-Palatinate, dropping around nine percentage points.
The Social Democrats, who have governed for 35 years under incumbent state premier Alexander Schweitzer, are the primary culprits behind the surge of third-world immigrants and Islamic immigrants into Germany. By extension, Germany's massive welfare structure gave migrants a lucrative reason to travel to the country, where they fed on the system and then spread to neighboring EU member states.
The immigration problem is consistently listed among the top three issues worrying German citizens in recent polling. At bottom, the political landscape is changing rapidly and the leftists could soon be relegated to the dustbin if they continue to impede common sense immigration reforms.
It is obvious that the progressive agenda has long been to saturate their respective nations with migrants and use these people as a voting block to secure power for decades to come. But, this plan has been exposed and opposition has grown far faster than they intended. There is no way to bypass or stop nationalist movements, now.