9 ms·

Why the AfD Wins

• markus_zhang 11d ago
  I remember watching a movie about Hitler coming back and became a media and political star. That movie was probably more than ten years old but I still find it very relevant.
  • etblg 11d ago
    "Er ist wieder da", or "Look Who's Back" in English.
    • markus_zhang 11d ago
      Yeah that's the one.
• TheMayorOfDunce 11d ago
  [flagged]
  • MandieD 11d ago
    ... quite the reverse.
  • mtmail 11d ago
    The guesses are overwhelmingly wrong.
• yogthos 11d ago
  Because German economy is imploding.
  • earthnail 11d ago
    Except it’s starting to grow again and indicators look positive.
    • dbspin 11d ago
      This was true right when Weimar Germany fell to the Nazis also. There's a degree of inertia to politics. We're also talking about a region of Germany that has been economically depressed for decades, with an unemployment rate twice the national average.
    • yogthos 10d ago
      Not really, VW just announced that they're laying off 50k people and closing plants all around Germany. They're one of the biggest employers. Deindustrialization continues unabated, and business closures aren't slowing down. I have no idea what these indicators you're talking about are exactly. The indicators I'm seeing is that Germany was cut off from cheap pipeline gas that its industrial economy was built on, and now there's another energy shock from war on Iran. On top of that, China is now taking over the same industrial niches enjoying access to much cheaper energy which lower input costs across the board.
  • LastTrain 11d ago
    But the right wing is demonstrably indistinguishable from left at making good economies. Same thing in the US.
    • marcosdumay 11d ago
      That seems to not matter for the people that think the way the GP points. (And they are quite distinguishable. The far right is way worse at it than the kind of left party that wins anything.)
      • LastTrain 11d ago
        Yes but somehow conventional wisdom is that leaning right is a vote for “fiscal responsibility” and the economy, a misconception that the left needs to deal with.
    • yogthos 10d ago
      I never said anything about AfD being any more competent than the current right wing regime.
  • watwut 11d ago
    No, economy does not explains it at all.
  • JaggerJo 11d ago
    “Germany's economy will grow by 1.3% in 2026, RWI said, upwardly revising its forecast of 0.8% growth in June.” https://www.reuters.com/business/germanys-rwi-institute-upgrades-economic-growth-forecasts-2026-2027-2026-09-03/ https://www.reuters.com/business/germanys-rwi-institute-upgr...
    • yogthos 10d ago
      VW is literally closing plants across Germany a we speak and doing mass layoffs, but whatever you say. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagen-supervisory-board-approves-transformation-plan-2026-09-03/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volksw...
      • JaggerJo 10d ago
        It's not what I say, it's what the numbers say. The car industry is struggling - but the German economy is more than VW..
        • yogthos 10d ago
          What the numbers say is that Germany is deindustrializing. It's not just the car industry, it's a problem in pretty much every sector. It's not what I say, it's what the numbers are saying. https://www.reuters.com/business/german-industrial-output-falls-unexpectedly-july-2026-09-07/ https://www.reuters.com/business/german-industrial-output-fa...
• gjsman-1000 11d ago
  If a right wing party can win in Germany, that’s a sign the left wing and centrist parties completely sucked and ignored voter concerns for too long. Let’s start there.
  • mc32 11d ago
    Because all other parties both want more immigration and two do their best to ignore the crime statistics by the immigrants. There is also the high percentage of immigrants who require public assistance coupled with a reluctance to assimilate definitely drives people to make these choices. It comes down to ignoring voters will drive them to people who don’t ignore them.
  • sajithdilshan 11d ago
    [flagged]
    • kuerbel 11d ago
      Nothing in this sentence is true. There is a network that is not part of the left that is trying to do this. But the official party line is different. Anyone can join a party and make it look bad, if they bring their friends even doubly so. Not to mention that a honest discussion about Israeli war crimes, their government and its members, and finally settlements is long overdue in german society.
      • sajithdilshan 11d ago
        I live in Berlin and have seen many rallies organised by left party with antisemitic slogans. Especially in Neukölln and that’s the hard truth (https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/politik/nach-yalla-yalla-intifada-neuer-skandal-um-die-linke-in-berlin-neukoelln/ https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/politik/nach-yalla-yalla...). Even the CDU (the current governing party in Germany) is distancing itself from the left party due to its antisemitic stance. > Anyone can join a party and make it look bad, if they bring their friends even doubly so. That’s funny because then people can say the same thing about AfD as well. Like they are bad people unwanted people joined AfD to make it look bad just like they do for the left party.
• 13415 11d ago
  Extremely high budget for ads and posters, social media campaigns, etc., all paid from foreign countries under dubious circumstances by straw men. It's all copy & paste across EU countries, far-right parties even copy the slogans they put on their posters, they just exchange the country name.
  • fatcatsbestcats 11d ago
    Yep. Like they say, follow the (foreign) money.
  • ballon_monkey 11d ago
    Is this what you truly believe?
    • 13415 11d ago
      I know it. "Salvar Portugal" "Deutschland retten" ROTFL
  • pas 11d ago
    yes, but also there's a real obvious unserved/underserved voting bloc https://www.slowboring.com/p/a-boring-theory-of-the-populist-right https://www.slowboring.com/p/a-boring-theory-of-the-populist... without convincing the people (winning their hearts and minds, and so on) it'll continue to be a profitable political strategy, unfortunately
  • dewey 11d ago
    That's kinda implying that they only got elected because they had money and a good campaign instead of addressing issues that are not addresses in an effective way by the other parties. This is probably the case of both things being true at the same time.
    • cyanydeez 11d ago
      I mean, they also get elected because hate motivates.
    • 11d ago
• deusex_ 11d ago
  much of it can be expressed via this visual which made the rounds a few years ago https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1519735033950470144/photo/1 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1519735033950470144/photo/1? the topics have different emphasis than in the US, but the principle remains. immigration, de-industrialization, green politics, erosion of trust based society
  • aappleby 11d ago
    anyone who thinks "woke" is a valid counterargument is not worth listening to.
    • hagbard_c 11d ago
      A rose by any other name etc. The moniker may change once every few years - even A. Occasional Cortex recently agreed that 'Woke 1.0 was craaaazy' [1] - but the beast never loses its stripes. Maybe the next term will be 'Woke 2.0', maybe something else but seeing how as this terminology comes from inside the narrative generator it can not be denied that it describes something real and as such claiming that those who use such terms that have fallen by the wayside '[are] not worth listening to' is the equivalent of loudly saying NA NA NA I DON'T HEAR YOU NA NA NA. Woke 1.0 was 'crazy' indeed, good that this can now be said. The successor will probably be just as crazy but in some different way. It most likely will be some throwback to classical marxist tropes instead of the intersectional mess which best describes 'Woke 1.0' because younger generations never experienced the reality of the Soviet bloc, never were taught the reality of life under communism in school and as such are easy targets for socialist propaganda, viz. the success of the DSA. This time it will surely work, people, real socialism has never been tried after all... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/15/aoc-woke-1 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/15/aoc-wo...
      • croisillon 10d ago
        it's funny because the reference to your quote of her shows it was not a quote of her we should call that hagbardisms
• harlekein 11d ago
  [flagged]
  • deleted 11d ago
    [deleted]
  • royal_ts 11d ago
    [flagged]
    • fatty_patty89 11d ago
      good refuting argument
    • baal80spam 11d ago
      Beautiful, are you proud of yourself?
• karol 11d ago
  Congratulations to democratically elected leaders!
  • oulipo 11d ago
    Hitler was also put in power legally
    • sajithdilshan 11d ago
      Just because you don’t like the result of the election doesn’t make it undemocratic. It was a fair and just election and people have voted what they want and that’s how democracy works.
      • gpderetta 10d ago
        It is undemocratic when the democratically elected people wants to subvert the democratic order. Most (but not all!) democratic countries have constitutions that actually limit the power of elected people exactly for this reason. Especially those countries that ended up democratically electing dictators on the eve of WWII have constitutions that severely limit the power of the executive.
        • sajithdilshan 9d ago
          Then let the constitutional court decide if the actions of the democratically elected party has done anything against the constitution. So far it has not happened and just because you have your hypocritical on how a party might act doesn’t make the said party undemocratical.
      • oulipo 10d ago
        You seem too simple-minded to understand the issue with fascists. Perhaps try opening an history book?
    • toomuchtodo 11d ago
      So is democracy always good? Or not? If you say you’re anti democracy, a certain cohort gets upset. If you say you’re anti fascist but fascists get elected via democracy, another cohort gets upset. “Democracy always works” has been shown to be objectively false, and so I’m unsure how we can say it is an optimal governance system. Works sometimes, but sometimes it doesn’t. Can we tolerate the failure modes until reversion to the mean? Depends on your tolerance for the costs. https://www.axios.com/2026/09/06/afd-saxony-anhalt-germany-far-right-firewall https://www.axios.com/2026/09/06/afd-saxony-anhalt-germany-f... > Why it matters: Germany rebuilt its democracy after Nazi rule with unusually strong safeguards against extremism. AfD's breakthrough shows those barriers aren't stopping Europe's far right from becoming dominant electoral forces. > Context: Germany's postwar system was built in the shadow of the Nazis' destruction of the democratic Weimar Republic. > The 1949 Basic Law embraces the concept of a "militant democracy" to defend against movements that seek to abolish the constitutional order.
• asmodeuslucifer 11d ago
  We can have billionaires, or we can have democracy. We cannot have both, because the billionaires have declared war on democracy. We have to imagine a world without billionaires because the billionaires are imagining a world without us. --Gil Duran, author of The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy
• giov4 11d ago
  as additional context regarding the topic: "The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been officially classified as a far-right extremist party by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV)." "This classification is based on several factors: Xenophobic Rhetoric: The AfD has consistently used language that disparages immigrants and minority groups. Islamophobic Statements: The party has made numerous claims that portray Islam and Muslims as threats to German society. Connections to Far-Right Movements: The AfD has been linked to various extremist groups and ideologies, raising concerns about its influence on democratic values." - Björn Höcke Used a banned Nazi slogan and criticized Germany's Holocaust memorial. - Alexander Gauland Trivialized Nazi crimes by comparing them to "bird poop" in history. - Maximilian Krah Suggested that SS members were not automatically criminals that doesn't directly explain why they won but for sure explains for which reason people voted them.
• deleted 11d ago
  [deleted]
• sajithdilshan 11d ago
  The main reason AfD won the election is the incompetence and arrogance of all other political parties. Since Covid times every other political parties in Germany seems to be under the impression that they are somehow holier and knows what is best for the people and what people wants doesn’t matter and the politicians decide what people deserves. The pinnacle of this is the current Chancellor of Germany which is arrogant, completely broke his election promises and keep on pushing the voters that are in the centre right or centre left towards the respective extremism. Another important factor is the current German economy. When the economy was somewhat in good shape after Merkle’s government people mainly voted for the Greens whose main agenda is climate change back in 2021 because people had good living standards and they could afford to focus on solving world problems. But the current economy is imploding and a lot of people are losing their well paid jobs and no other party seems to be even talking about it except for AfD and somehow the current government is under the delusion that economy is doing far better than they have thought. This again is a reason for a lot of people to vote for AfD. Last but not least is the Islamic extreme/terrorist attacks that happened past years. There have been multiple incidents of cars been driven into crowd including in Christmas markets and latest attack in the Gay pride in Berlin this year. That has been used by AfD to emphasise the incompetence of the current and previous governments to ensure the internal security of the country to gain even more votes
  • slow_typist 11d ago
    The Economy is not imploding. While 2025 was a lost year for growth Germany‘s GDP is consistently growing since q4 2025 - despite a very interesting geopolitical situation. It is part of the problem that every media outlet from progressive to far-right paints the economical situation in the worst light. What is decreasing are nominal wages at least for parts of the population which is a pure allocation problem. Sure the automobile sector has structural problems and the chemical industry needs cheaper energy but Germany is still an economical powerhouse even without a strong domestic ICT industry, which is, in comparison, the most important driver of growth in the US. During the pandemic something went terribly wrong and public institutions seem to be incredibly weak in the moment. Don’t be fooled though, the problems are solvable, the question is how to find political majorities for doing so. The tale of the weak economy is taken as a reason to cut down welfare and thus the CDU/CSU have a vested interest in writing down the economy. This policy will soon lead to even more people turning to political extremism and the CDU is going to suffer most from this development. On the other hand, with the AfD in charge in Sachsen-Anhalt, a small part of Germany with only 1.7 million voters, France, which has its own political problems, is already getting wary of chancellor Merz's plan to build the largest conventional military forces in Europe. Maybe this mechanism explains why so many Germans in the pacifist movement are so compatible to so called nationalists (who also want to withdraw from helping Ukraine against Putin). The biggest irony is that Germany is gaining so much through the Euro currency (most of the exported goods stay within the EU) and a German national currency, which the AfD wants to implement, would appreciate so hard and quickly that exports would go down enormously. That would easily cripple GDP by 10% or more leading to substantial problems.
• Luker88 11d ago
  I don't know why this happens, but I would caution against assigning rationality to the voters. In Italy voters have been electing one party after the other without consistency for the last several elections, which I would use as a point to general desperation and not feeling represented. I would like to know how many other countries have a similar attitude, like "let's try these ones, we have not voted them yet so maybe this time it's better"
  • juancn 11d ago
    Voters are mostly emotional, not rational. The people that actually sway the elections vote by feel. You have to always remember that about half the population has an IQ under 100.
    • threatofrain 11d ago
      That's by design, of course. Whether people got smarter or dumber we might still assign 100 to be the median.
      • Eddy_Viscosity2 11d ago
        That half of any sizeable population will always be dumber than the average of that population is thing that feels worrisome even though its just how statistics work.
    • CamperBob2 11d ago
      You have to always remember that about half the population has an IQ under 100. And that the <100 half is much easier to herd.
    • onecommentman 11d ago
      That sort of “smarter than thou” attitude resulted in the Republican victories in the Eisenhower/Stevenson US Presidential elections of 1952 and 1956. Maybe Nixon too, with the “silent majority”. Superficially smart, smug, supercilious and (ironic, eh) emotionally satisfying…but ultimately very foolish.
• qw12j 11d ago
  Because people want Nord Stream, fewer immigrants, more apartments, nuclear energy and no forced state TV payments. Weidel is of course living the woke WEF lifestyle in Switzerland with her Sri Lankan lesbian partner and was at Goldman Sachs. So a betrayal of the voters, Meloni or Trump style is very likely if the AfD should manage to have the federal majority.
  • giov4 11d ago
    Interesting context. I just discovered about the Syrian that worked in Switzerland at her home without contract, brilliant. but not so brilliant as this one: "On 9 January 2025, in a live broadcast with Elon Musk on X Spaces, both Weidel and Musk said that "Hitler was a communist". The classification of Hitler and the National Socialists as "left" and "socialist" is rejected by the vast majority of historical research." wow
• rvz 11d ago
  This is a question for the AI chatbots to answer.
• nasso_dev 11d ago
  its a hard pill to swallow, but it might be time for us to accept that democracy enables this and if we want to live in a better world we might have to think of a different model (no, not a dictatorship; obviously not that) democracy is based on the idea that people will vote in favor of their own interest. it has been proven repeatedly that this is not the case (see: the united states of america) democracy as a system has been figured out by enough people with enough power to rig it in their favor, even when science and research shows that this is not the better outcome for the majority (see: the united states of america) its a hard pill to swallow but it might be time for us to accept that democracy isn't perfect...
  • throwawaypath 10d ago
    [flagged]
    • hackyhacky 10d ago
      Republicans tolerate democracy when it goes their and do everything to undermine it when it doesn't. See exhibit: Trump
      • throwawaypath 10d ago
        Whataboutism. You're following me around in the comments because you're crashing out about being proven wrong here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546137
        • hackyhacky 10d ago
          You can't just say "whataboutism" whenever someone points out your blatant hypocrisy.
          • throwawaypath 10d ago
            >blatant hypocrisy Nothing I've said is hypocrisy. Please reread the definition of hypocrisy. hackyhacky is following me around in the comments because he's crashing out about being proven wrong here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546137
• RGS1811 11d ago
  Caldwell is a Claremont guy, which is key to understanding where he's coming from. First Things is an christian nationalist / natcon outlet funded by (among others) Peter Thiel. That doesn't prevent him from being correct about things in this article, but it's worth noting the outlet and source. Caldwell systematically elides the völkisch-nationalist character of the AfD and their adjacency to neo-Nazism. He underplays Höcke's extremism, ignores the Potsdam meeting, and leads us to believe (falsely) that the identification of the AfD as rechtsextrem was somehow a biased political stunt. It wasn't, there is plenty of backing for the classification, and it would not have been undemocratic to apply the Verfassungschutz and ban them permanently. edit: typo
  • sp527 11d ago
    I'm not German and knew little of this subject, but I read the piece word for word and I can say with certainty you have not offered enough of a counterargument here. I looked up the Potsdam meeting you mentioned and there were literally members of CDU (Merkel's party) present as well. It's utterly laughable to try and use that to then exclusively castigate a different political party for having had some of its members present. By your illogic, we would be forced to infer that the CDU is also "extremist". So far, I'm left feeling like AfD has indeed been misrepresented by the liberal western media. And, I say this as someone who certainly does not agree with some of their positions. For example, being "skeptical" about climate change in 2026 is sheer idiocy. But what is very clear to me is that Germany has a democracy problem. The system as described has not been truly democratic. It instead sounds approximately 'left-leaning authoritarian', right down to your insinuation that a political party should have been banned for its speech. In case anyone in Germany is interested in rediscovering democracy, please note that THIS is what it looks like: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
    • RGS1811 11d ago
      There's a big difference between "I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it" and "I disapprove of your stated objective to expel german citizens who don't meet your ethnic/cultural standard of German-ness, but will defend to the death your right to govern." A century ago, Germans tolerated a völkisch-nationalist party that wanted to expel non-german ethnic groups as well. They did; they expelled millions of them to Poland and liquidated them there. The Verfassungschutz was implemented after WWII to prevent that element in society from taking power again. I find the vociferousness with which clueless Americans have decided to defend the AfD bizarre. You don't know the political context, you clearly don't know the history, but you've decided that "Germany has a democracy problem." Why are you so entitled to an opinion?
• Luker88 11d ago
  ...Should we also point out that the people who actually lived Nazism and Fascism are basically gone, so we are very probably looking at nostalgics who do not believe it was that bad, simply because to them it's just another third-hand story?
• davidguetta 11d ago
  As a right wing / afd ally said in France litterally said yesterday: Do you know where extreme-right is low ? in Danemark. You know why ? because the SOCIALIST PARTY implemented the end / started being tough ob illegal immigration. it never was about anything else than the majority of people tired of being force-fed immigration by european elites solve this issue, solve "extreme right" and it was the same in the US at that point people not seeing this are mentally ill in my opinion
  • Hikikomori 11d ago
    How much illegal immigration did Denmark have?
    • zulux 11d ago
      Enough legal/illegal/asylum drama for it to become an election issue. Hard to hide rape statistics.
      • Hikikomori 11d ago
        So media blowing it out of proportion as usual?
        • Obscurity4340 10d ago
          Even 1x/ONE rape of a citizen by someone who shouldnt even be there is too many. Its not disproportionate to do no harm and correct the mistake
          • arw0n 10d ago
            Interesting way to phrase that. The easy way to solve rape is to castrate all men. We can save some sperm in case of wanted pregnancy, but since the vast majority of violent and sexual abusive crime is committed by men, it would be the most rational solution to the problem. Eevryone would be safer, even us castrates.
• rayoleary 11d ago
  I fully admit TLDR but where do you live?
• jleyank 11d ago
  Let them have their minority government and see what they table for consideration. From their actions, people will judge them. The won because people think complex problems have simple, untried solutions that are common sense. They hate "them", they're stoked on (social) media. They feel put upon and denied their rewards. Same old, same old with more effective communication paths.
  • irishcoffee 11d ago
    The simple, untried solution is to stop being the export dumping ground of china. But when anyone says that the knee-jerk reaction is “you’re an awful person for saying that” FT has had a few articles about it recently, here is one about a historical vote at the G20 summit. https://www.ft.com/content/dcefdf76-9bac-4b34-80c2-eab80b559f53?syn-25a6b1a6=1 https://www.ft.com/content/dcefdf76-9bac-4b34-80c2-eab80b559...
    • jleyank 11d ago
      "Cheap goods" is quite a problem, as basically the US, possibly all of North America loves their cheap Walmart items. Screw how they were made... They're usually the cheapest. Replace "Walmart" with whatever large box store goes lowest price as appropriate.
      • palmotea 10d ago
        > "Cheap goods" is quite a problem, as basically the US, possibly all of North America loves their cheap Walmart items. Screw how they were made... They're usually the cheapest. Replace "Walmart" with whatever large box store goes lowest price as appropriate. Loves? Or driven to them by necessity? The whole "China Shock" "bargain" for many was something like: you'll lose your jobs, status, and security; but "cheap Walmart items" should make your lowered circumstances more bearable.
        • jleyank 10d ago
          I think they could pay 0.20 - 0.50 dollars higher at Target or a different bulk store.
• grigio 11d ago
  desperation
  • illiac786 10d ago
    Yes but why? Outlets pushing Angst?
• davoneus 11d ago
  Grievance politics sells quite well. When AfD backers argue it's Western Germany's fault, it's easy for a lot of people to climb on board. Heck, AfDs own platform argues there should be more Russian language in the schools and Russian cooperation across the board. That on its face says an awful lot.
  • Mikhail_Edoshin 11d ago
    This is common sense. Germans are our long term neighbors and generally friends. As "Pravda" wrote at the end of WW2, "Hitlers come and go, but the German people remains". It's about time they take their country back.
    • red-iron-pine 10d ago
      > generally friends proceeds to sabotage airports with drones and blow up ammo dumps "friends"
    • geoka9 10d ago
      I don't know, you guys yourself like saying "Russia's only friends are its army and its navy".
    • illiac786 10d ago
      Unfortunately , Putin does not come and go.
• archagon 11d ago
  Why on earth did the mods decide to remove flags on this?
  • deleted 11d ago
    [deleted]
  • sph 11d ago
    Clearly far-right European politics is “interesting to nerds because it has been upvoted”, as dang would say; nevermind the hypocrisy.
    • archagon 11d ago
      Meanwhile, a thread with more votes and comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49602582 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49602582
• amai 10d ago
  If Trump wouldn't threaten Germany (probably with tariffs), the AfD would already be forbidden. Don't take my word for it. Politicians from the AfD itself admit that: https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article696e612da4073dd2f97f73a9/afd-streitet-ueber-groenland-trump-schuetzt-uns-vor-einem-verbotsverfahren-krah-weist-kritik-an-usa-zurueck.html https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article696e612da4073...