Alternative for Germany appears to be headed for the strongest showing by a far-right party since World War II in\u00a0Sunday\u2019s national election<\/a>\u00a0and is fielding\u00a0its first candidate<\/a>\u00a0to lead the country.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other parties\u00a0say they won\u2019t work<\/a>\u00a0with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and co-leader Alice Weidel has no realistic chance of taking the country\u2019s top job. But AfD has become\u00a0a factor other politicians can\u2019t ignore<\/a>\u00a0and has helped shape\u00a0Germany\u2019s debate on migration<\/a>.<\/p>\n It has also become prominent outside Germany. The party has won enthusiastic support from\u00a0Elon Musk<\/a>, as well as attention from U.S. Vice President\u00a0JD Vance<\/a>\u00a0and Hungarian Prime Minister\u00a0Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>.<\/p>\n AfD first entered Germany\u2019s national parliament eight years ago on the back of discontent with the arrival of large numbers of migrants in the mid-2010s, and curbing migration remains its signature theme. But the party has proven adept at harnessing discontent with other issues, too: Germany\u2019s move away from fossil fuels, restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and support for Ukraine after\u00a0Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion<\/a>\u00a0nearly three years ago.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The party was founded in 2013 and initially focused on opposition to bailouts for struggling countries in the eurozone debt crisis \u2014 measures that then-Chancellor\u00a0Angela Merkel<\/a>\u00a0described as \u201cwithout alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the years, AfD became more radical and repeatedly changed leaders. It was Merkel\u2019s decision in 2015 to allow in large numbers of migrants that supercharged it as a political force. In the 2017 national election, it won 12.6% of the vote, to take seats in the German parliament for the first time.<\/p>\n For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Where does it stand now?<\/p>\n After returning to parliament in 2021 with reduced support of 10.3%, AfD picked up strength as Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s center-left government bickered through a series of crises and\u00a0finally collapsed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Germany saw\u00a0a wave of protests<\/a>\u00a0a year ago triggered by a report that\u00a0right-wing extremists met<\/a>\u00a0to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that AfD members were present.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n But that didn\u2019t do long-term poll damage to AfD. It\u00a0finished second<\/a>\u00a0in the European Parliament election in June, and in September, the best-known figure on its hardest-right wing, Bj\u00f6rn H\u00f6cke, secured the\u00a0first far-right win<\/a>\u00a0in a state election in post-World War II Germany.<\/p>\n AfD went into Sunday\u2019s election with renewed confidence and radical language, and polls put it in second place with about 20% support. Weidel, its first candidate for chancellor, has\u00a0embraced the politically loaded term \u201cremigration\u201d<\/a>\u00a0as the party calls for large-scale deportations of people with no legal entitlement to be in Germany.<\/p>\n AfD calls for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Russia and opposes weapons deliveries to Ukraine. It wants Germany to reintroduce a national currency and for the European Union to become a looser \u201cassociation of European nations,\u201d though it isn\u2019t explicitly advocating leaving the 27-nation bloc.<\/p>\n Germany\u2019s\u00a0domestic intelligence agency<\/a>\u00a0has the party under observation for suspected right-wing extremism. The AfD\u2019s branches in three eastern states are designated \u201cproven right-wing extremist\u201d groups. AfD strongly objects to those assessments and rejects any association with the Nazi past. H\u00f6cke has appealed\u00a0two convictions<\/a>\u00a0for knowingly using a Nazi slogan at a political event.<\/p>\n \n\t\tTrending Now<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tCanadians call Wayne Gretzky a \u2018traitor\u2019 after tense 4 Nations hockey final<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n \n\t\t\t\t\u2018I feel disrespected\u2019: Ontario town considers removing U.S. flags from its buildings<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n AfD has support across Germany and is represented in all but two of the 16 state legislatures, but the party is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It has a unique ability to seize on issues \u201cthat other parties don\u2019t handle with this clarity, with this intensity, with this radicalism and this emotionality,\u201d said Wolfgang Schroeder, a political science professor at the Berlin Social Science Center. \u201cAnd on top of that, it\u2019s an internet party and from the beginning used the emotionalizing power of the internet for its own communication \u2014 much better than all other German parties together.\u201d<\/p>\n That has helped it to perform strongly among young voters in recent regional elections. The party portrays itself as an anti-establishment force at a time of low trust in politicians.<\/p>\n Schroeder described it as \u201csomething like an aircraft carrier for resentment and anger.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t![\"For](\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/images\/skyline\/national.jpg\")
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