Globalist Germany's only Nationalist party, AFD, branded far-right Nazis by Europe's fake news media

Germany’s main conservative alliance has won the early federal election, taking a major step closer to forming the new government.

Germany Election 2025: What is the AfD and what does its leader Alice Weidel stand for?
The leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been endorsed by Donald Trump - and looks set to make huge gains in this weekend's snap election.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2017827/germany-election-2025-what-is-afd-alice-weidel

While the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) are expected to win the most support, coverage has focused on the spiking popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, led by Alice Weidel.

Polls suggest that the CDU's Friedrich Merz will be the country's next chancellor, with 30% of the vote, but the AfD is projected to come a close second, with 20% - double their performance at Germany's last federal election.

Against a backdrop of global and domestic turmoil, the election's main talking points have been controlling immigration and reinvigorating Germany's ailing economy.

But what exactly is the AfD and what does its rising popularity mean for German politics? We've broken down everything you need to know about the populist group and its frontwoman, Alice Weidel.

READ MORE: Two reasons man tipped as Germany's new leader will clash with Donald Trump

Local AfD Candidate Campaigns In Brandenburg
Alice Weidel has led Germany's AfD party since 2017 (Image: Getty)
What is the AfD?

The Alternative for Germany party was created in 2013, initially as an anti-European Union group focused on economic issues in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

It quickly evolved into a hardline anti-immigration party as the country reckoned with a migration crisis in 2015, however, and has backed calls for a cap on migrants entering Germany, with a particular focus on Muslims.

The AfD has been led by Alice Weidel, 46, since 2017, who is herself a controversial figure. The West German drew criticism in 2018 when she said: “Burqas, girls in headscarves, knife-wielding men on government benefits and other good-for-nothing people are not going to ensure our prosperity.”

In 2024, a German court ruled that the group was officially under suspicion of extremism and in 2019, it was judged that regional leader Björn Höcke could legally be called a fascist.

Despite this, the AfD has recieved backing from US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who hosted an interview with Weidel on his platform X in January.
Can the AfD win the German election and what is the ‘firewall’?

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The AfD is very unlikely to get into government after this weekend's election because of a "firewall" policy adhered to by Germany's other political parties since the collapse of the Nazi regime in the mid-20th century.

It means that the other parties in the running, including the CDU, Scholz's Social Democrats (SDP) and the Greens, would refuse to enter into a coalition with the AfD - so far barring the party from entering state or national government.

While the CDU's projected win of around 30% of the vote means it is likely to enter into a coalition with either the SDP or the Greens, the main story of the election could be the AfD's ascent to second place in the polls despite its ostracisation.

Merz has categorically ruled out working with the AfD, but recent polling suggests Weidel's party could win 145 seats in the Bundestag to the CDU's 220 - destabilising the balance of German politics, which has generally held far-right groups at bay since the 1940s.

Based on first exit polls, the conservative Christian Democratic Union, led by Friedrich Merz who is set to become the next chancellor, and its sister party, the Christian Social Union, garnered most of the vote. The bloc won 28-point-6 percent of votes followed by the right-wing Alternative for Germany, with 20-point-4 percent. The Social Democratic Party ended fourth by winning 16-point-3 percent of the vote. The election was called after the three-way coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and the neo-liberal Free Democratic Party collapsed in late 20-24. With a turnout of over 83-percent, the election saw the highest voter participation since 19-90. While the conservatives won the largest share of votes, they have so far fallen short of an absolute majority and will need a coalition partner to secure at least three-hundred-16 seats in the parliament to form the next government.