The far right in Germany is in a buoyant mood.
On Saturday, while holding its conference in the eastern city of Riesa in Saxony, the Alternative for Germany party laid out ambitions to close Germany's borders, resume purchases of Russian gas and, in effect, dismantle the European Union.
German media reported that the party's agreed-upon statement includes plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, exit the euro currency and create a new confederation of countries.
AfD leader Alice Weidel has even publicly embraced the term “remigration” – a word widely understood to mean the mass “return” or deportation of people with a migrant background.
Thousands of anti-AfD demonstrators gathered in the streets of Riesa on Saturday, seeking to block access to the conference venue.
When Alice Weidel eventually took the stage, she described the activists abroad as a “leftist mob.”
In front of a cheerful conference hall, delegates spoke of “large-scale repatriations.”
“And I have to be honest with you: If it's going to be called re-migration, this is what it will be: re-migration,” she said.
It's a stunning departure from what happened just a year ago when it sought to distance itself from a scandal centered on the highly controversial concept.
Anti-AfD demonstrations erupted across the country after it emerged that senior party figures were among those who attended a meeting in which “remigration” was allegedly discussed with Martin Sellner, a far-right Austrian activist with a neo-Nazi past. .
Sellner wrote about “re-migration” asylum seekers, some foreigners with residency rights and “unassimilated” citizens.
It is a buzzword on the far right in Europe, with some claiming that legal residents will not have to leave. Critics say the phrase “return migration” is merely a euphemism for an explicitly racist mass deportation plan.
But Alice Weidel's decision to coin the term personally, weeks after an early federal election, demonstrates the growing extremism and confidence of her party.
She also pledged to demolish wind farms, which she described as “mills of shame”, withdraw from the EU asylum system and “fire” gender studies professors.
The AfD consistently ranks second in opinion polls in Germany, and has made gains in recent regional elections in the east of the country – where the party has its strongest strength.
However, it is unlikely to win power because other parties will not work with the AfD.
Domestic intelligence has classified sections of the AfD as far-right.
In 2024, Björn Höcke, one of the far-right mascots of the AfD party, was fined twice for using a banned Nazi paramilitary phrase, “Alles für Deutschland” (“All for Germany”).
He described it as an “everyday phrase” and denied knowledge of its origins, despite having previously been a history teacher.
Reports that congress members in Riesa this weekend chanted “Alice for Germany” sparked quick comparisons in the German media.
However, AfD figures have often complained of being demonized and persecuted by biased media and institutions.
Alice Weidel's party – of which she co-chairs and is now a candidate for chancellor – has weathered repeated storms and is now close to 20% or even above 20% in national opinion polls.
The 45-year-old economist, who previously worked for Goldman Sachs and is in a same-sex relationship, sought to polish off her party's rough edges.
But for those who staunchly oppose the AfD, it is a fig leaf, or as one Social Democrat put it, “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Regardless, she's enjoying a new spotlight now He was invited by the tech billionaire – Elon Musk – for a live chat on his X platform last weekHe supported the party wholeheartedly.
Her declaration during this debate that Adolf Hitler was in fact a communist drew condemnation, given the Nazi leader's well-known anti-communism.
Critics have warned of Nazi revisionism, something the AfD has previously been accused of.
Björn Höcke once called for a “180 degree turn” in Germany's handling of its Nazi past, while former co-leader, Alexander Gauland, described the Nazi era as “just a speck of bird dirt in more than 1,000 years of Germany's successful history.” “.
However, the AfD's anti-establishment, anti-immigration, anti-“woke” agenda is finding followers in Germany going to the polls on February 23.
