A new report by legal experts has found that efforts to ban Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could be successful — but there would be political dangers to such a move.
Permanent border controls and technology-driven surveillance led to a 42% drop in irregular crossings during 2025.
I don’t see any evidence for that claimed cause and effect relationship. Just because irregular border crossings fell doesn’t mean that the policies worked. The article just claims it does, without providing any evidence whatsoever.
Also, it’s mixing a few things up. Irregular border crossings are primarily related to asylum seekers. Skilled-worker immigration laws have nothing to do with that.
Oh, btw. here’s a photo of a border crossing nearby. I’m still looking for that dystopian ai powered surveillance here. Can’t seem to find it… almost as if it’s all just a show for gullible people…
Your mistake is to assume that immigration is their only topic. Or the only topic the population cares about. Anti-immigration is a small subset of their voter base. I already told you what other topics they cover among others. So you may want to actually inform yourself about the politics and social discussions in the country you try to yanksplain.
Their entire thing is being contrarian. Whatever the government decides, they will oppose it. For example: When corona hit, they called for lock downs. Once those lock downs were implemented, they called for lifting lock downs. You cannot win against them by copying a “milder form” of whatever they scream about, because they just do the pigeon on a chessboard thing and shit on it. They frame themselves as “rebels against the system” in every channel they can run on.
Political scientists have repeatedly pointed out that accommodation does NOT work. It only strengthens and legitimized the far-right. It’s a simple question: Why vote the copy, if you can have the original?
Because the thing you apparently do not know about Germany is this: The mainstream parties, especially CDU, is constantly accommodating the far-right. And they’re doing that “milder form” for ~15 years now, and shifting the discourse further and further to the right. If your assumption were right, the AfD shouldn’t exist anymore.
You know what did work against the AfD? The Mass Protests of 2024. It caused them to drop several points in the polls. Turns out, making them socially unacceptable does work. The same way it worked against the NPD, which never gained a lot of influence in the first place. You know why? Because nobody was copying them, and barely any media was hosting them.
Again showing you have no idea about German politics… Border controls didn’t start in 2025. Merz didn’t invent them. They started in 2015. Migration flows were already falling in the years after that. And adopting right wing talking points was already happening before 2015. In 2000 they started with the “Leitkultur” debate.
AfD was founded in 2013. In 2014 the first pegida showed up and got designated “worried citizens” from the leading parties, completely ignoring that these clowns are a loud minority. Yes, technically it’s 13 years since foundation of the AfD, i just rounded the number up. That’s what the “~” thing means…
And no, Merkel did not open borders. Her “wir schaffen das” was after the people arrived. The far right just spread the rumor that it was the other way around.
Despite the AfD making some waves in German politics around the time of its founding, the party never made large enough gains to have a significant effect on political proceedings in the country. It has a history of winning only a few seats in state level elections, never being able to build coalitions with mainstream parties, and not once polling over 20 percent in the country until July of 2023. In fact, in 2020, the party even took a hit, with one poll suggesting that support for the party among Germany’s eastern states had dropped more than five percent in less than a year. This development came at a time of uncertainty and contempt for the party, as violence connected to Germany’s far right and the removal of a regional chairman of the party due to his ties to neo-Nazi groups worked to delegitimize the AfD in the eyes of many Germans.
Today, however, it would seem this drop never happened. Following their historic wins, the AfD has never been more popular. Membership has grown almost 60 percent in just over a year, and the AfD vote share has increased by at least 6 percent in all three state elections this fall.
From https://www.visaverge.com/news/friedrich-merz-leads-conservative-push-to-reshape-germanys-immigration-policy/
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has implemented sharply more restrictive migration policies while prioritizing pathways for specialized labor.
Permanent border controls and technology-driven surveillance led to a 42% drop in irregular crossings during 2025.
The Skilled Immigration Act was updated to fast-track visas for nurses and engineers to address labor shortages.
The AfD has stands on other topics, but I suspect its popularity is their view on immigration.
I don’t see any evidence for that claimed cause and effect relationship. Just because irregular border crossings fell doesn’t mean that the policies worked. The article just claims it does, without providing any evidence whatsoever.
Also, it’s mixing a few things up. Irregular border crossings are primarily related to asylum seekers. Skilled-worker immigration laws have nothing to do with that.
Oh, btw. here’s a photo of a border crossing nearby. I’m still looking for that dystopian ai powered surveillance here. Can’t seem to find it… almost as if it’s all just a show for gullible people…
Whether it was the result of Merz policies, the reduction in illegal border crossers will undermine the AfD’s appeal.
It doesn’t. Illegal border crossings are already down for years. Btw. do you see the refugees in the photo i posted?
Then why is the AfD popular if there few illegal border crossers?
Your mistake is to assume that immigration is their only topic. Or the only topic the population cares about. Anti-immigration is a small subset of their voter base. I already told you what other topics they cover among others. So you may want to actually inform yourself about the politics and social discussions in the country you try to yanksplain.
Their entire thing is being contrarian. Whatever the government decides, they will oppose it. For example: When corona hit, they called for lock downs. Once those lock downs were implemented, they called for lifting lock downs. You cannot win against them by copying a “milder form” of whatever they scream about, because they just do the pigeon on a chessboard thing and shit on it. They frame themselves as “rebels against the system” in every channel they can run on.
Political scientists have repeatedly pointed out that accommodation does NOT work. It only strengthens and legitimized the far-right. It’s a simple question: Why vote the copy, if you can have the original?
Because the thing you apparently do not know about Germany is this: The mainstream parties, especially CDU, is constantly accommodating the far-right. And they’re doing that “milder form” for ~15 years now, and shifting the discourse further and further to the right. If your assumption were right, the AfD shouldn’t exist anymore.
https://goodauthority.org/news/embracing-populism-doesnt-hurt-right-wing-parties-it-may-help-them/
https://theloop.ecpr.eu/mainstream-parties-adopting-far-right-rhetoric-simply-increases-votes-for-far-right-parties/
You know what did work against the AfD? The Mass Protests of 2024. It caused them to drop several points in the polls. Turns out, making them socially unacceptable does work. The same way it worked against the NPD, which never gained a lot of influence in the first place. You know why? Because nobody was copying them, and barely any media was hosting them.
Merz’s policies to tighten the border began in 2025 when he became chancellor. How is that 15 years?
Again showing you have no idea about German politics… Border controls didn’t start in 2025. Merz didn’t invent them. They started in 2015. Migration flows were already falling in the years after that. And adopting right wing talking points was already happening before 2015. In 2000 they started with the “Leitkultur” debate.
AfD was founded in 2013. In 2014 the first pegida showed up and got designated “worried citizens” from the leading parties, completely ignoring that these clowns are a loud minority. Yes, technically it’s 13 years since foundation of the AfD, i just rounded the number up. That’s what the “~” thing means…
And no, Merkel did not open borders. Her “wir schaffen das” was after the people arrived. The far right just spread the rumor that it was the other way around.
From https://www.princetonpoliticalreview.org/international-news/germanys-populist-wave-understanding-the-afds-recent-rise
Despite the AfD making some waves in German politics around the time of its founding, the party never made large enough gains to have a significant effect on political proceedings in the country. It has a history of winning only a few seats in state level elections, never being able to build coalitions with mainstream parties, and not once polling over 20 percent in the country until July of 2023. In fact, in 2020, the party even took a hit, with one poll suggesting that support for the party among Germany’s eastern states had dropped more than five percent in less than a year. This development came at a time of uncertainty and contempt for the party, as violence connected to Germany’s far right and the removal of a regional chairman of the party due to his ties to neo-Nazi groups worked to delegitimize the AfD in the eyes of many Germans.
Today, however, it would seem this drop never happened. Following their historic wins, the AfD has never been more popular. Membership has grown almost 60 percent in just over a year, and the AfD vote share has increased by at least 6 percent in all three state elections this fall.