The Nepal Weekly 
February 25, 2025
Germany’s political system is set up to exclude extremists. Yet the country is gearing up for a new political reality that has lurched to the right with the once outcast Alternative for Germany (AfD) party now undoubtedly established in German politics.
The country’s mainstream conservatives, as predicted earlier, won the largest share of votes in Sunday’s election according to the preliminary results and will be attempting to form the next government, while the AfD came in second. But make no mistake – second place is a huge result for a party that although it likely won’t be in office once the dust settles, will enjoy greater influence.
The party has doubled its support as compared to the previous election in 2021, when it got just 10 percent of the vote. It is now the first far-right party in Germany’s post-World War II history to have attained such broad levels of public popularity, and it has also significantly increased its share of seats in Germany’s parliament.
The AfD reached a particularly large number of voters in eastern Germany, where it has long had a stronghold. But it also gained some significant support in constituencies in the country’s west, including the industrial city of Gelsenkirchen which has been suffering with stagnating economy and high unemployment, and Kaiserslautern, which is surrounded by a number of US military installation, including the Ramstein Air Base.
“We have never been stronger – we are the second-biggest force,” announced AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, as she addressed crowds in Berlin after exit poll results were revealed on Sunday evening.
The mood at the far right’s election party in Berlin was ecstatic as the exit polls first flashed onto the screens, with people cheering and waving Germany flags.
For his part, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader and Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz claimed victory as he slammed US interference in the country’s election campaign – which saw high-profile figures from the Trump administration speak out in support of the AfD.
These interventions are “no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow,” Merz said. Formed in reaction to Eurozone policies in 2013, the AfD had become accustomed to being on the fringe of German politics, in a country scarred by its Nazi past and where any far-right party has been treated with caution. This is for the first time that the party fielded candidate for the post of chancellor.
