In case you are new to German politics and have no clue what is going on when news articles talk about the AFD, no worries, this article is made just for you.
Until there was AFD the only popular right party that made it into the government was the NPD, following Hitlers ideologies. Many supporters were hard core Nazis, though it did have also protest voters that just wanted to express that they do not appreciate the government.
When AFD started it seemed like it was standing for the people, and no one really had a clue what their values are. My friend actually once voted back then for the AFD in the beginning and he feels very ashamed for this past mistake. A lot of NPD supporters felt like the AFD was more heard than other parties and flooded the AFD. As some of their politicians were not comfortable working with the radical right, the AFD was plagued with infighting.
With the desire for more voters, AFD has jumped on every bandwagon it can jump that can possibly oppose the government. Including Pegida (against islam and muslims coming to Germany) and against climate change and against refugees. It allied with far right movements across Europe for the European election which according to AFD are "not racist at all".
Readers that wish to defend their opinion about why they think climate change is not real, please go in the comments of this article.
The AFD did not only seem attractive to closet Nazis and protest voters. In social media AFD has grown very successful, as it allowed unpopular opinions that do not undermine AFD to be spoken freely. They also were source of many FakeNews stories that gave their supporters a feeling of validity in their alternate reality. Here is one of these platforms that got taken over by the rival German satire leftish party "Die Partei". The taken over Facebook pages displayed this video which mentioned some examples of hate speeches that were allowed such as a picture of Hitler holding his head saying "I totally forgot about the muslims".
source
Despite their tolerance towards their own Antisemites, the AFD seems to yearn for nationalistic brother love with Netanyahu, the nationalistic leader of Israel, by voicing their wish to ban "antisemitic" Israel criticism (because maybe in their mind Israel is a religion and Judaism is a country???).
Their dislike for foreign criminals caused a spike in right wing terrorism and antisemitic crimes as terror statistics and crime statistics indicate. They even give funding to terror networks.
In summary the AFD is full of confusion and alternate reality delusions. They believe with a 10% majority it is their democratic right to decide over Germany. They are against refugees, yet secretly bring them here by supporting violent regimes that cause them to come here in the first place, and denying climate change.
They are Antisemites, except when it comes to Israel. They hate terrorist networks, and so they rather build their own terrorist network them self. They hope to be intolerant, but get offended when they are answered with intolerance. Their political stance if full of paradoxes and delusions that don't make sense. It has become a stigma to be associated with them, and they are in the "right corner" of the Government with no political party daring to side with them, hence being left with no power except CDU/CSU trying to imitate them and wanting to join the political minority corner in the next election which brings green and left hopes.
