AfD birthday: Ten years of racism, anti-Semitism and scandals with meme potential

Germany

The self-proclaimed alternative for Germany has reason to toast: The right-wing populists in trouser suits are celebrating their tenth birthday. The started AfD under the chairman Bernd Lucke as a euro-critical anti-EU party.

In the meantime, the alternative has made a few shifts to the right – and an immense wear and tear of the chairman. There have been a number of gaffes over the years.

Watson has summarized the top 10 for you.

Geography lesson with Beatrix

One thing is clear for the AfD: Man-made climate change does not exist – instead, someone else must be held accountable.

In a conversation with the journalist Tilo Jung, party celebrity Beatrix von Storch also has a concrete idea of ​​who. She demands evidence that climate change has nothing to do with solar energy, but “with our breathing.”

Much more obvious, says von Storch, is to blame the sun. The temperature of the sun has to do with the temperature of the sea – and accordingly also with the CO₂ absorption capacity of the oceans.

Von Storch is right in that oceans actually a lot of CO2 absorb – which is also true: cold water absorbs the carbon dioxide better. However, the warming of the seas has nothing to do with the temperature of the sun, but with global warming.

It doesn’t matter to Stork. She says: “We should explain to the sun that it shouldn’t shine that much.” Because the ocean doesn’t get warm or cold because man says so. “We should sue the sun,” the AfD politician concludes her plea.

Border protection: shooting down instead of deportation

Von Storch is less amusing when it comes to refugees than when it comes to climate protection. Her hatred of these people obviously runs deep. So deep that it would probably be okay for police officers to shoot women and children should they cross the border.

The trigger for this statement, which von Storch later sold as a technical error, was a demand from the then party leader, Frauke Petry. In January 2016, in an interview with the “Mannheim Morning” explains that police officers have to prevent illegal border crossings with firearms if necessary. A debate broke out on Facebook, in which the question arose as to whether the AfD also wanted to use armed force to prevent women with children from crossing the border illegally. The answer from Beatrix von Storch: “Yes”.

In 2016, then-chairwoman Frauke Petry called for the borders to be defended by force of arms.Image: imago stock&people / Robert Michael

The Gauland shit

But of course the AfD does not only consist of Beatrix von Storch. Alexander Gauland – the man with the dog tie – also regularly exceeds the limit of what can be said with ease. For example, when he described Nazi Germany as “bird shit” in the 1000-year history of Germany. Holocaust trivialization at it’s best.

Alexander Gauland is the honorary chairman of his parliamentary group.Image: X03720 / MATTHIAS RIETSCHEL

These words were used in his greeting at the national congress of the Young Alternative – the youth organization of the AfD – in 2018.

The Reichstag storm

On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. There were injuries, there were deaths, there was damage to democracy. In Germany there was already an attempt in August 2020 Storming of the Reichstag. People demonstrating against corona measures stormed the doors of the building and tried to get in – without success. Among the attackers were (ex) members of the AfD and the youth organization.

But not only that: In November 2020, the party also actively smuggled troublemakers into the Bundestag. Alternative media professionals from the right-wing scene then harassed the then Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) with their cell phones and many questions in the elevator.

Creative mask DIY’s

Now it can already be said that the AfD is not really into scientific facts – or rules. Some AfD politicians are correspondingly stubborn when dealing with Corona. In the Bundestag, for example, the 3G rules applied in the plenum – the large room where the members of parliament sit and argue. Parts of the AfD faction did not want to comply and were therefore banished to the stands. To where guests and the press usually sit.

And the thing with the masks was also a problem for many MPs. There were numerous plastic protective shields and sneeze guards. Or, as in the Bavarian state parliament, even completely different solutions. MP Stefan Löw appeared for a speech with a gas mask. Incidentally, the debate he was addressing was about Nazi war crimes. The gas mask was not trivialized, because there is a mask requirement.

The Bavarian AfD MP Stefan Löw appeared in the state parliament with a gas mask. Image: Bavarian Parliament

Not a court-approved fascist

Right winger Björn Bernd Höcke should at least be familiar with Nazi war crimes. After all, he was a history teacher in Hesse. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution lists Höcke as a right-wing extremist. In the meantime, the claim made the rounds that he could be called a fascist – confirmed by the court. But that’s not the case.

Björn Höcke is the state head of the AfD Thuringia.Image: dpa / Sebastian Willnow

The district court of Hamburg found: The head of the AfD-Thuringia was not declared a fascist by a court. By the way, thanks to the satirist Jan Böhmermann, no one knows anymore whether Höcke’s real name is Björn or Bernd.

The flyer service Hahn

The AfD is now represented in almost all state parliaments of the republic, as well as at the federal level since 2017. In order to be elected, parties and politicians must first draw attention to themselves: election campaigns. Well, and the AfD also wanted to operate that in 2021 for the federal elections. With flyers from the confidence-inspiring “Flyer service Hahn“.

A fictitious company – without a real business address or entry in the commercial register – operated by the self-proclaimed “Centre for Political Beauty”. A coalition of around 70 performance artists and creative people. The party has commissioned five million flyers from the fictitious flyer service. They never arrived; instead, according to the center, they were destroyed.

The Wild Hunt

The members of the AfD are hunters, not gatherers. After the good performance in the 2017 federal election, Alexander Gauland announced: “We will hunt Mrs. Merkel.” As the third-strongest party, the AfD wants to drive the government before it.

The AfD wanted to hunt down former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).Image: dpa / Fabian Sommer

A promise that was also repeated at the 2022 party congress. AfD member of the Bundestag Mariana Harder-Kühnel explained there:

Poet Chrupalla

He is the protector of German poetry: AfD boss Tino Chrupalla. He wants students to learn more German poems. He asked for it in an interview. But he himself probably got to know too few of these German poems during his school career.

Tino Chrupalla is committed to reforming German teaching.Image: IMAGO/Emmanuele Contin

Because upon request ZDF children’s reporterwhich is Chrupalla’s favorite poem, he replied: “My favorite poem is … um …” He had to think about it first. After all, Chrupalla knows his favorite poet: Heinrich Heine.

The “chatter group”

AfD MPs don’t just enjoy hunting down the establishment and German literature. Internal chat logs of the “chatter group“Last year they revealed how racist, anti-queer and radical the AfD parliamentary group is.

And not only that: the chat also openly fantasized about the overthrow. If the old parties had finally driven the shop to the wall, the AfD would come and clean up.

“Germany, but normal” is the slogan with which the AfD is currently adorning itself.

The past ten years have shown how “normal” the party and its members are. However, it is to be expected that the self-proclaimed alternative for Germany will accumulate a number of (racist and anti-Semitic) scandals over the next ten years.