r/europe • u/Rtan-Appreciator • 4h ago
News ‘Remigration’ and Russian lessons: German far-right party promises radical measures if elected
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/15/europe/alternative-for-deutschland-afd-germany-manifesto-intl101
u/cheese2042 4h ago
I can't believe people will hear this and still vote for them. Even if you're a conservative, aren't there right wind parties who aren't Russian puppet ?
Any German here who could explain this ?
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u/StardewMelli Germany 3h ago
No, we are as baffled as you are. I can’t believe how utterly stupid people are.
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u/StoicSunbro Hesse (Germany) 3h ago
As an American living here now, it can get worse. Germany is dealing with similar problems that eventually compromised us.
- Formerly okay press becoming rightwing propaganda
- Russian disinformation campaigns
- Aspiring-oligarch billionaires like Henning Conle or Theo Müller pushing to tear down the firewall.
- Cost of living and immigration being used to wedge people to the right
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u/LaserCondiment 2h ago
I live in Austria and I've been basically watching the rise of the far right since my childhood. The talking points and methods are the same everywhere.
What's changed is how interconnected those parties have become. The money, the (social) mediasphere, the momentum they've managed to build, the tech bros on their side... It's a huge advantage they have over opposing parties!
No matter where you are, something tells me we haven't seen nothing yet.
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u/CustomerBusiness3919 2h ago
German education is actually pretty good, including history of Nazism, and yet here we are 80 years later with Fascism staring us in the face and people not recognising it for what it is.
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u/mad_marble_madness Bavaria (Germany) 3h ago
Any combination of:
Arrogantly ignorant people (“I know best”).
Honest-to-god Nazis.
Assholes that want to see it all burn.
Idiots.
Thought-lazy people (unwilling to use their brain).16
u/KayTwoEx 2h ago
German here. There has been a recent study about their followers, sorting them into three groups. Only the smallest group with about 13% care about any other topic than immigration, such as the economy or foreign policy.
They are so right-wing that they consider other right-wing conservative parties as part of the left. By and large they have left the regular news cycle for Telegram chats, Russia Today spinoffs, etc. They are highly into conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers, etc. Basically, they're like MAGA. By their behavior, they have been officially designated right-wing extremists in conflict with values guaranteed in our constitution.
Their fixation on Russia is mainly based on energy: they want to import cheap gas from Putin. They also want to get rid of wind and solar energy. The Ukraine war is NATOs fault, supporting Ukraine is wrong. They've also had some corruption scandals with party members having been found to receive money from Russia and China. As their work in parliament, there has been a pattern of them gathering data on public infrastructure, energy infrastructure and infrastructure weak points. The speculation here is they're also passing that on to Russia.
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u/Stewie01 12m ago
They should be banned from running if they pose a threat to the German constitution, its been done before and it can be done again.
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u/nj4ck 3h ago
AFD supporters are absolutely unhinged. I was standing with a group of friends at a party, the name Alice Weidel came up and this random woman jumps in, "I LOVE Alice Weidel!" - asked to elaborate on why, she says "because she's a STRONG woman!" Mind you, this woman told us she was an immigrant herself... when I asked what she thought about "remigration" and all the Nazi dog whistles that various AFD candidates have been dropping over the years, she was bewildered. Had never heard of such a thing. She just really liked that Alice Weidel is a "strong woman" with strong opinions and she thought the world needs more of that. One of the most jaw-dropping conversations I've ever had, absolutely wild.
AFD supporters don't respond to reason, they do not understand anything about the world around them and they don't want to. They just want a leader to follow, someone to authoritatively tell them what to do. They will fall in line behind anyone who projects strength convincingly, irregardless of what they're actually saying. Same reason they love Putin so much.
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u/Hot_Excitement_6 2h ago
People aren't conservative anymore. They want to dismantle Germanys current state and political system. They aren't conserving things, they are reactionaries.
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u/Excalibaard Drenthe (Netherlands) 3h ago edited 3h ago
They're not hearing them. Same with other far-right parties, not just the German ones.
The people persuaded by these parties are not actually listening to what they say. They're merely parroting the things they already believe or projecting their own (uninformed) views on them ("that's what they really believe").
These parties mostly 'work' because of their façade. Weird blond dude (preferably from TV). Pretty woman who actually dares to say "the bad thing 'everybody' secretly thinks". 'Farmer' who loudly proclaims their 'farmers intuition'. 'True Christian' claiming the same thing about their belief. They're all about the character that leads the party - their branding - rather than the substance in their actual beliefs.
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u/Tortellobello45 Lombardy(Italy) 3h ago
Yes, there is a non-Kremlin puppet right wing party in Germany, and it’s called CDU.
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u/Enough_Code_3831 4h ago
Seems that they want to be ruled by the Kremlin again. Fake patriots.
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u/seesthecat For Tugal! 3h ago
In the days of yore, scum of this caliber would be left swinging for the crows to peck... aren't they the ones that want to return to those dark days? Can't the courts conceed their wish just for them?
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u/Flimsy-Resident261 4h ago
“Will target first Ukrainian refugees that fled war” “free Russian lessons” oh boy
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u/Meshchera Russia 3h ago
The worst thing is that these idiots will probably win the elections in Germany, and Le Pen in France. After the Americans elected Trump twice, I'm not surprised by anything. It's seriously like we're in some South Park episode that's dragged on too long.
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u/Teldryyyn0 1h ago
I don‘t think AfD will ever win the state elections in Germany. Of course it’s a disaster if they win the local elections in Sachsen-Anhalt, but in the end that is just a 2.2 million state. The only way that AfD can ever get into the german government is if the conservative party forms a coalition with them. I don’t see that happening, it would be a shockwave for the entire country.
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3h ago edited 3h ago
[deleted]
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u/Weirdo9495 Germany/Croatia 3h ago
Reform in UK is in almost a free-fall and Restore is failing to get off the ground, though. There is a recent poll where Reform is behind even Tories. In UK system any shift can mean a great loss of seats.
Far right is, fortunately for the Brits and unfortunately for the rest of us, considerably more popular in continental Europe than the UK.
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u/MapDiscombobulated1 4h ago
Putin fluffing like this clearly isn't about "putting Germany first," is it.
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u/AibofobicRacecar6996 3h ago
Will they also target the russians that claim europe is shit, but chose to live in germany
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u/djquu 4h ago
If they get elected into power with this platform, Germany deserves to have them run it to the ground. Just like US deserves Trump. Some people will vote against their own interests despite knowing better, and will only learn when they actually get what they voted for. Sorry not sorry.
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u/Opening-Hope377 4h ago
i honestly do not think that i, my wife, my son, my family and all my beautiful friends deserve this. fuck them cunts.
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u/DonSergio7 Wallonia (Belgium) 3h ago
Democratic societies either need to protect themselves from the likes of the AfD and foreign political interference or bear the full consequences.
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u/djquu 3h ago
We don't get what we deserve, nobody does. Have you and your friends and family been politically active? Have you done everything you can think of to create a different outcome? If yes, then I hope you don't have to live through it, but democracy runs on majority vote. I know I could have done more during our last election and maybe slightly affect our right-wing populist rise to power, and it is a bitter pill to swallow as I have been a part of the record-breaking number of unemployed for almost two years.
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u/Opening-Hope377 1h ago
erm...honestly don't know what to reply to this. had you been more active you unfortunately wouldn't have changed a thing. they are a cult, they live in an alternate reality, they do not give a fuck, they thrive on bad vibes.
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u/IntriguinglyRandom 3h ago
Then you need to be prepared to fight for all of those beautiful people in your life. Go protest, call out any misinformation you see in your day to day, be ready to go protest in lieu of working your job, etc.
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u/Opening-Hope377 1h ago
you do realise that unfortunately protesting and calling out misinformation does absolutely nothing in these times?
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u/TheDesertShark 52m ago
The afd getting elected will fuck over all of europe not just germany, they are by far the most dangerous far-right party
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u/WeeklyPhilosopher346 3h ago
The left pretty much everywhere wants radical action by their representatives after the last decade of rightwing asshatery.
Wish more parties would actually catch on to that.
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u/Cheeseburger2137 3h ago
It feels like an article from Der Zwiebel lol.
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u/Buttfranklin2000 Bavaria (Germany) 2h ago
German Onion would actually be "Der Postillion".
I recommend it, it's a riot.
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u/Dismal_Vehicle315 1h ago
ehh.....how do people fall for this obvious puppet shit? Are people really straight up retarded?
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u/jhwheuer 4h ago
That state has 2.5% of Germany's total population
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u/the-player-of-games 4h ago edited 3h ago
This is a pointless deflection edit: and they are polling nationally at close to 30 percent
The og fascists also started with a small base of support
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u/vodamark Croatia 👉 Sweden 3h ago
What I don't understand is how can 40% of the people be considering to vode for these traitors.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 3h ago
They would sell their own babies to get immigrants out.
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u/Meins447 2h ago
Which that region has one of the lowest shares within German regions...
It's so ridiculous
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u/Teldryyyn0 1h ago edited 1h ago
Sachsen-Anhalt has very few immigrants anyway. A lot of them are just genuine morons similar to MAGA.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 1h ago
That's typical of anti-immigrant areas everywhere. Places that actually have immigrants are used to them.
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u/PineappleEasy6035 3h ago
Nowadays it seems like far right parties confuse patriotism with Russian money. Weird.
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u/DonSergio7 Wallonia (Belgium) 3h ago
Can we finally stop normalising this brain-dead new-speak 'remigration' phrasing? Call it what it is - mass deportations.
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u/Former_Suspect3680 3h ago
The revealing part isn't the Russian lessons, it's selling Kremlin nostalgia as German patriotism.
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u/Lazzen Mexico 2h ago edited 28m ago
What do racist germans think of all the russian bullshit? Do they just ignore it because "as long as no africans come they can do wathever"?
Some gay and atheist Spaniards vote for the extreme VOX party bevause they believe they can fix one issue they do not like and the rest of their bullshit can be "managed" or someone else will save them from consequences.
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u/Teldryyyn0 1h ago
I met mutiple AfD voters in my life. Most in the military but they were still kinda chill dudes. None of them were really „racist“ in the sense that they would harrass someone for being a foreigner. Impossible anyway because our unit had multiple boys from afghan or syrian background who were super cool.
Outside of the military, the AfD voters I met were always idiotic, I just can’t say it otherwise. One explained to me recently that diesel prices are high not because of Trumps war, but because Ukraine blew up “our oil pipeline“. The other has been a conspiracist since covid. They didn’t make it in life and really lack the most basic knowledge on politics.
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u/GuyFromMoscow 1h ago
The EU will do anything but crack down on the enemies of the free world with the prejudice they deserve,fucking hell
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u/Mesonychia 4h ago
Russian lessons and school exchanges to Russia is just so on the nose, it’s actually hilarious. Like there’s 0 practical reasons to implement this, it’s just pure political signaling.