AW: Berlin Briefing | Questions about Germany
Dear reader,
thank you for your interest in our output.
You ask about our label to describe Germany's AfD party.
We refer to the AfD as far-right or far-right extremist because it has
been classified as such by German courts and the domestic intelligence
service.
You may have noticed that we have labels for all parties, intended to
help our readers to roughly place them on a political spectrum.
Objecting to unrestricted immigration alone is not what makes a party far-right.
When it was formed in 2013, the AfD's main focus was on abolishing the
Euro and opposing bailouts of indebted European Union member states like
Greece. With the rise in immigration in 2015, the AfD moved towards
nationalism and misogyny. Moderates left the
party.
The AfD does not support many of the basic rights enshrined in the
constitution, does not respect the courts or the traditional media.
Individual members use Nazi Slogans and make offensive and derogatory
statements - and indeed labels such as racist and misogynist
have often been used to describe them. The AfD advocates a traditional
nuclear family and is hostile to alternative lifestyles.
On immigration and human rights: The AfD wants to get rid of the right
to an individual hearing in asylum cases and seek to immediately deport
all those whose applications to remain in Germany are rejected,
regardless of whether the countries to which deportees
are sent back are safe or not. It also advocates for foreigners who
commit crimes in Germany being sent to prisons outside the country and
treating minors as young as 12 as adults for certain offenses.
The AfD wants to seal the EU's borders, institute rigorous identity
checks along Germany's national borders and set up holding camps abroad
to prevent migrants from leaving for Germany in the first place.
As a nationalist party, it wants is opposed to the EU, its institutions and principles.
I hope that explains why we use the "far-right" label.
Kind regards,
Rina Goldenberg
Berlin Briefing newsletter team
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