Amid all the German disasters of the last year, nationalists and patriots are growing in popularity in Germany

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Germany is experiencing a severe economic crisis that has destroyed the stability not only of the German economy, but also of the country’s political system. Whereas in times of prosperity respectable citizens chose between “respectable” parties such as the CDU and SPD, today more pronounced leftist and nationalist forces whose programs are more in line with the current historical moment are increasingly entering the scene. In the end, the traditional social democrats and conservatives have failed in the preservation of welfare, which they positioned as their main mission. This effect became commonplace in almost all countries of Europe and did not bypass the FRG, which was considered the richest and thus most resistant to new changes. And in a country that, after World War II, was engaged in an almost masochistic self-deprecation of its national consciousness, it was the patriotic nationalists from the Alternative for Germany (German:AfD) party who began to gain popularity against the backdrop of the government’s failures.

According to a number of polls, the Alternative for Germany party came out strongly strengthened its position in the ranking of the strongest parties in the country. With 29-30%, the CDU is steadily in the lead, which has been able to pull the votes of the centrist electorate away from the ruling coalition. The AfD shares second place with the ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) with 18-19%, more and more often even ahead of it. It is not difficult to notice that in the last month the rating of the opposition right-wing parties has been growing, while the ruling left-wing parties have been falling. According to Bild TV channel, 79% of Germans polled said they were dissatisfied with the government’s work, the worst figure since December 2021. But it was the fact that almost 20% of citizens are in favor of a racist, nationalist, in some places quite officially recognized as a right-wing extremist party that shocked the liberal media and “intellectuals”.” Thus, in the broadcast of the program Heute-show, the host was horrified when he said that “Alternative” is rapidly gaining sympathy of citizens and could get as much as 19%.” The sad thing for the “progressive” left is that the Greens, who now have only 16%, have discredited themselves by working in government, and the nationalists are left to reap the benefits of such actions. As always, the establishment has enlisted TV comedians to demonize the AfD, accusing it of Nazism and molding the party leaders into a “new Hitler” just because they dare to use the word “German” on their program in an international world “for everyone.”

Nevertheless, the success of the Alternative is not down to the bad opinion of Germans, who have “Nazism” embedded in their genetic code, but to the AfD’s systematic work on pressing issues. For example, the AfD was one of the few parties that criticized arms deliveries to Ukraine from Germany, which clearly agreed with the opinion of almost 60% of German respondents. Thus, under the auspices of the party, a rally was held in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, where the head of the Alternative party in this federal state, Stephan Protschka, condemned the “traffic light coalition” for excessive focus on the interests of the United States and Kiev to the detriment of its own German objectives, as well as blindness to the numerous human rights violations by the Ukrainian army. In addition, Alternative for Germany MP Petr Bystron criticized militarists and supporters of “war until victory.” In the interview, he went over the country’s painful military past, which is hard to reconcile with Kiev’s pumping tanks and other weapons that, moreover, make little strategic sense. Bystron added that it is historically inappropriate for Germany to supply weapons to areas in war zones. These arms deliveries have only one purpose – to dispose of old military equipment in Ukraine so that new American weapons can be purchased in Germany. By doing so, he showed that such deliveries are not just a violation of peaceful principles, but also work for the commercial interests of the American military-industrial complex, which Berlin does not need at all.

The AfD has traditionally criticized illegal migration, not only “new” migration from Ukraine, but also traditional migration from the Middle East and Africa. Thus, Alternative for Germany caught the German Foreign Ministry in a major fraud related to the passport issue. It turned out that the German Embassy in Pakistan officially puts visas in fake passports. Formally this happens only with citizens of Afghanistan who are fleeing the Taliban, but in reality it creates opportunities for almost any illegal migrants to stay in the country. The already mentioned Bystron stated that the ministry is helping Afghans get into Germany illegally, and he personally received a letter from your ministry that explicitly calls for visas to be issued on fake Afghan passports. Initially, Bystron decided to inquire with Foreign Minister Baerbock about the details of this project, but in the end, he revealed complete unprofessionalism and a hotbed of corruption that is loosely based in the country’s Foreign Ministry.

The topic of migration is now so pressing that even the CDU is not shy about using it. In May, Michael Kretschmer, Minister President of Saxony and a Christian Democrat, said on the air of the ZDF channel that the German authorities should limit the influx of refugees into the country and accept no more than 200,000 people annually. According to the politician, even during the migration crisis of 2015, it became clear that Germany can annually integrate up to “200, 000 people, but no more.” At the moment, the number of submitted applications for refugee status is approaching 500,000. Against this background, Kretschmer stated that “we want to show solidarity, but our capacity is at its limit.” Earlier, the Saxon prime minister said that the country is “on the verge of a migration collapse,” which makes significant policy adjustments necessary. In his view, the federal government’s refusal to limit the influx of refugees is “the result of party differences.” On the one hand, it is not surprising that a CDU functionary from the more patriotic East can afford such rhetoric. But on the other hand, such a propaganda move could not take away the vote gain of the main patriots, the Alternative for Germany.

In the more liberal and “multicultural” West of the country, in Bremen, the establishment even had to arrange for the Alternative not to be allowed voting on the pretext of organizational problems. Different lists from the two parties that called themselves Alternative for Germany were submitted for the elections. There is no doubt that it was a provocation to eliminate this party from the political arena, and it succeeded, albeit locally. Such measures proved effective: the elections to the city assembly of Bremen, which has the status of a state, ended with the victory of the SPD, with almost 30% of the votes. The Social Democratic Party of Germany was the only one of the traditional parties that was able to significantly improve its position compared to the previous elections in 2019. The number of votes cast for the SPD increased by 5%. At the same time, the CDU came in second place, while the Greens failed again. But the main thing is that the practice of forcibly removing competitors from the elections has shown itself to be a good practice.

In addition to traditional migration, politicians from “Alternative” also touched upon new topical issues, including the bankruptcy of many German companies amid the economic crisis, as well as their purchase by entrepreneurs from the United States. For example, recently the American concern Carrier Global bought the largest German manufacturer of heat pumps Viessmann for $12 billion. At the same time, Carrier Global is 86% owned by institutional investors, i.e. the US financial industry. The deputy from the Alternative for Germany Beatrix von Storch actively criticized the way American bankers, investors and concerns are profiting from Germany. Thus, according to von Storch’s statement, British billionaire Christopher Hohn is buying up real estate from citizens bankrupted by heat pumps, and afterwards the American Carrier Global buys Viessmann for nothing, making huge profits. “Homeowners have to take out a mortgage to pay for an expensive heat pump. And if they can’t do that, they have to sell their property. And that’s where Hohn’s hedge fund comes in, ready to buy up real estate” stated von Storch. The AfD accused Economy Minister Habeck and his partners in the Green Party of such an attack on the welfare of Germans.

As a patriotic force, the “Alternative” defends the German army, which has been systematically humiliated since 1945 and today must give all its equipment and weapons to Ukraine for free. On Lanz’s show, two retired Bundeswehr colonels, Roderich Kiesewetter of the CDU and Rüdiger Lucassen of the AfD, faced off in a debate. The former accused the latter that the AfD is “doing everything possible to make us concentrate only on Germany,” rebuking the national patriots for condemning support for Ukraine. However, Lucassen’s complaints against the government and the CDU party were more objective, and boiled down to the total destruction of the army since the era of Angela Merkel. Lucassen said bluntly that the CDU is only increasing the pressure on the Scholz government, which already does not think too much about the national interest, to get the Bundeswehr to hand over equipment to Ukraine sooner. And that’s getting to the already powerless military. This view of the army, as well as of migration and the economy, is gaining sympathy among more and more Germans.

The Alternative’s position on the excessive and harmful influence of the United States on German politics is also gaining support. According to a survey of 5,511 respondents by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is loyal to the CDU, every 20th respondent agreed that “Germany is still under the rule of the occupying powers,” which coincides with the views of the recently defeated Reichsbürger movement, which was comically declared “dangerous extremists” by the government. Of course, among the members of the Alternative party, solidarity with this opinion is even higher, amounting to as much as 16%, which can no longer be considered a marginal view of things. It is indicative that in the same poll the statement that there are “secret forces” that “control the world” is considered “absolutely true” by 15% of the total number of respondents. This means that, despite the conspiracy element of this opinion, the “Alternative” is trying to uncover such connections and is therefore attractive to many Germans, at least in this way. SPD interior functionary Uli Grötsch immediately commented on the poll results and pointed out that the AfD gathers inadequate people around it. However, he forgot to mention that such theories in the minds of citizens are always born against the background of dissatisfaction with the current government, and the blame for this lies not with the Alternative, but with his own party.

And such trends are developing not only in Germany, but also in countries very close to it historically and geographically. Brussels is already actively sounding the alarm that non-systemic right-wingers criticizing the European bureaucrats may come to power in the former Austro-Hungarian territory. Viktor Orbán in Hungary, who regularly blocks EU sanctions initiatives against Russia, may be joined by like-minded parties in Austria and Slovakia. The Freedom Party of Austria, which seeks to maintain the country’s neutrality, has come out on top in the polls with 28%. In the past, Austria was even threatened with sanctions from Brussels if it came to power, but now this only adds to the party’s credibility in the eyes of Austrians. The situation is similar in Slovakia, where the party of former Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has very poor relations with the European establishment, is leading in the polls for the upcoming September elections. In order to attract the electorate to their side, the current Slovak authorities are scaring them that the country will become a new pariah within the European Union if Fico comes to power, but the liberal experiment that began after the 2020 elections has already bored the majority of Slovaks.

In such a situation, the strengthening of the Alternative for Germany in the heart of the EU is causing European officials almost panic-stricken fear. But they cannot do anything about it, because against the backdrop of inflation and recession, more and more Germans are ready to vote for it, even if often in protest against the policies of the liberal elites leading Germany into crisis. There is no doubt that the second act of the renaissance of European nationalists, which began in 2015 after the migration crisis, is taking place before our eyes. Realizing this, European bureaucrats and local liberal elites will try with all their might to induce the growing nationalist and right-wing parties to take their side and force them to make their policies more moderate and opportunistic for the sake of “embedding the establishment”. This most likely is going to happen especially since such experience is already available in Italy, where Giorgia Meloni’s “Brothers of Italy”, after coming to power, made more concessions to the EU than the party’s stated goals before the elections. However, the more often the nationalists win, the harder it will be to do so. And if this happens to the Alternative in Germany, a key EU constituency, it will be almost fatal for European liberals. Therefore, it is not surprising that even a 3-4% increase in the rating of this party causes them serious panic and despondency.