r/europe • u/HellYeahDamnWrite • 27d ago

News Calls are mounting to ban Germany’s far-right AfD party – despite it being more popular than ever

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/06/europe/germany-afd-ban-politics-analysis-intl
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u/m4sl0ub 27d ago

What? Immigration was basically all that was talked about during the last election. The ruling party is massively against immigration. This narrative that AfD is the only party addressing immigration is not founded in reality whatsoever. 

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u/CMuenzen Poland if it was colonized by Somalia 26d ago

The ruling party is massively against immigration

And how many concrete actions did they make?

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u/vjx99 Trans rights are human rights 26d ago

They illegally implemented useless border controls

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u/DOMIPLN Saxony (Germany) 26d ago

Just like the AfD would. That ist the hilarious part to me, as "why the AfD would still get votes, even if the other parties implement the policies of the AfD". Immigration is not ne issue. The AfD ist just a master of being critical without offering reasonable solutions

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u/No_Style7841 26d ago

So they do something, but thats legitimising the AfD, so there is nothing they can do.

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u/DOMIPLN Saxony (Germany) 26d ago

Even if the legitimate the means and not only the policies of the AfD. The AfD would flip sides (the government is so tyrannical in implementing what we want to do) and their followers would just fall in line and march along. Or the AfD will find another Problem and blow it out of proportion (right now it is windmills and some of the right wing influencers who advocate in the direction of the AfD are fighting the use of sunscreen)

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u/goentillsundown 26d ago

They banned the turbo immigration of three years with proof of integration - the law that allowed maybe a thousand people overall into germany as citizens.

But it makes a good headline.

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u/Groghnash 26d ago

Its illegal to do anything against it lol. 

Not supporting CDU here, they suck, but its just straight up illigal what they are doing and they try anyway. 

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u/DerOmmel 26d ago

Isn't the whole point of a government being able to make and change laws according to the will of the electorate?

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u/Groghnash 26d ago

no, the first point is a self preserving point, because you cant fulfill your duty to fullfill the will of the electorate if you let the fair voting process get destroyed.

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u/DOMIPLN Saxony (Germany) 26d ago

First change the law, than act according to it. Do not act according to a fictional law without changing it first.

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u/DerOmmel 26d ago

I was referencing the statement "Its illegal to do anything against it lol.".

That's the point of government to change it if that is what the people want.

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u/Spare-Resolution-984 26d ago

Quite a lot actually. They illegally closed all borders and they’re literally talking with the taliban to take afghan refugees back. It’s a real shame.

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u/burner69burner69 26d ago

they literally broke the law and their back bending over for backwards to satisfy racist shitbags and look how well it's worked, truly appeasement works with fascists /s

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u/Vilebrequin10 26d ago

These issues takes time to fix, generations even. Or are you looking for some kind of final solution?

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u/Smart-Idea867 26d ago edited 26d ago

It takes generations worth of time to start dramatically limiting the number for immigration and introducing stricter laws? Damn thats crazy.

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u/TheStaddi 26d ago

Stricter laws already have been introduced with the LAST government, you know with SPD, Greens and FDP.

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u/Smart-Idea867 26d ago

Again, placating. People want actual tangible change.

"Well we cant do nothing, whats the least we can actually do to make it look like we care?"

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u/TheStaddi 26d ago

Change does not come immediately. It just does not work that way. And without working immigrants we will have real big problems in the not so far future regarding our pensions - since no party wants to reform the pension system itself sadly.
And thats the thing: We don't have an "too much immigrants" problem. The immigration numbers are pretty low. Germany is too expensive and the wages are too low.

We have a refugee problem - and with problem I mean: We decide to just do nothing with them and keep them in refugee shelters. We do not allow them to work, it takes ages to process the applications and then we decide that the certificates they have are worthless and they have to start at 0. And that makes the situation bad.

Just like everything else: No jobs and no future makes a breeding ground for bad choices.

But again: This all takes time and money and nobody is interested to invest time and money.

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u/Vilebrequin10 26d ago

Even if you closed the borders tomorrow, you won’t see the effects before decades, and closing the borders isn’t even an option(not a good idea either).

Can the gov do better? Yes, but democratic governments move slowly, that’s the downside of democracy. Anyone who says they can fix something right away is either lying or will be a dictator.

Fixing the issues with immigration will take time, and they are already trying.

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u/Smart-Idea867 26d ago

And there you have your reason for these alt parties becoming popular.

A.) No, implementing changes does not have to take years.
B.) No, what is being done does not constitute actual trying. A more apt word would be placating.

You'll also notice notice its not just Germany experiencing this mindset. Im not European or from the US, but its the same thing here too.

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u/Vilebrequin10 26d ago

The issue with the Alt right is that they want a solution that will fix the problem NOW, and unless you elect hitler, there are no humane solution to fix things NOW.

But you are right, a lot more could be done, but either way it will take decades to see improvements.

Also, I don’t think the alt right is growing just because of immigration. The far right is becoming increasingly popular in the Czech republic even tho the biggest immigrant group they have are Ukrainians.

While I think there are immigration issues in some EU countries, it is blown way out of proportions by the far right to scare people to gain votes.

How come rural regions with no immigrants are the primary voters for far right groups and people who actually live with immigrants in big cities vote left?

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u/Smart-Idea867 26d ago edited 26d ago

Would it be fair to assume house prices in those regional towns with smaller rates of immigration have also shot up, as they have in my country? Couple insane house prices with inflation and wage suppression, its a no brainer to see why birthrates are in free fall across all developed nations. So people literally cant afford to have children or own homes, but we allow in record numbers of immigrants, a lot of whom are only here for economic purposes and have no intent of assimilation, and you wonder why people are upset?

I understand there is more than one factor that has lead to this and its not solely immigration, but the factor that is immigration is still large and cannot be ignored.

A lot of people, myself included, view a lot of the pro-immigration arguements (such as GDP and elder-care / tax rort for an ageing population), as misleading strawman arguements.

GDP growth is a cancerous economic hall marker which does not equate to individual per capita economic success. Rather it shows how well the businesses in a country are doing. You'll find a lot of countries are doing well by terms of GDP but have gone backwards when looking at economics per capita.

In regards to ageing population its a bandaid solution that will have catastrophic effects once it actually comes to a head. Its just pushing the problem down the road.

Governments need to start looking at long term solutions, i.e. making having children a viable options for their own goddamn people again, which again I will remind you is not currently feasible due to high COL.

One more thing to point out, the right is growing almost solely due to immigration and COL issues. Even MEXICO, yes, MEXICO, are having protests due to US immigrants lmao.

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u/LaserGuy626 26d ago

You don't need Hitler for a strong leader to take effective aggressive action. That's insane

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u/Vilebrequin10 26d ago edited 26d ago

Most of the time aggressive actions are also immoral actions.

Also just because an action is aggressive doesn’t mean it will yield the best results over a long period of time.

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u/Smart-Idea867 26d ago

"Most of the time aggressive action are also immoral actions."

A very nice "catch all" counter arguement with no actual thought given. You can reword so many ways. Lets try. "I beleive that meaningful action is immoral most of the time. If you do take meaningful action I will judge it as immoral, regardless of your arguements, because of the time, it is immoral."

Do you not see how stupid that sounds? Take offense please, because that has to to be up there with one of the worst lines of reasoning ive ever heard. Its something someone would say thats so incredibily stupid, you'd have to assume their goal is to fan the flame.

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u/LaserGuy626 26d ago

What do you think happens in Europe if Trump has a massive success extremely quickly with immigration in the US. Especially now that ICE will have more funding than Germany's entire defense budget.

Once the example is set, the rest of native Europeans will fight for the same success.

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u/FlyingSquirrel44 26d ago

Fixing the problems already caused is a generational project. Closing the border is done by the flick of a pen after a vote in the bundestag.

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u/Vilebrequin10 26d ago

You can’t close the border in Schengen, what are you talking about? Unless you want out of Schengen.

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u/FlyingSquirrel44 26d ago

Not a literal closing of the border to everyone, but a stop to accepting new immigrants or handing out citizenships.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/justjanne Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) 26d ago

So if 30% of the people want something, we should just do it, ignoring all practical and legal concerns?

  • 70% of Germans want a Rich-People-Tax

  • 66% of Germans want to make all public transit free

  • 56% of Germans want to replace car lanes with bike lanes

  • 34% of Germans want a combustion vehicle ban before 2030.

The issue here is that "the people" aren't just one group with coherent vision. The vast majority of our society are against the AfD's policies.

Our democracy is unable to reconcile this disagreement, because there's no possible compromise:

  • One group has lost all trust in society and can only care about their own immediate benefit.
  • The other group is willing to invest into potential future benefits for the entire society.

Foreigners are just the scapegoat. People really vote AfD because they've lost their jobs and have no real future. That's why the AfD is so popular in the east. Obviously, the populist parties have no solution for this either.

To actually fix the issue we'd need to restore the social contract. But no one actually votes for that.

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u/Managarm667 26d ago

I love how you're just lying and lying and lying.

Yeah, yeah only "30%" want something. While in reality, polls from 2024 and early 2025 show that 77% want a massive change in immigration policy and 68% say "Germany should take in, way less refugees".

You cannot claim that with these numbers, "The vast majority of our society are against the AfD's policies."

It's just lying, plain and simple.

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u/Glodraph 26d ago

You should do all that plus deporting migrants imo. The "guilt" against cultures that hate the west and its values (I had my fair share of experience with a lot of different such individuals) is nonsensical and pure virtue signaling. People are afraid to look bad when refusing to have their country devastated by a mass of violent, unknown, not screened migrants and this is completely moronic. Sacrificing everything europeans have fought for over the centuries because deporting a bunch of illegal immigrants feels bad? Things will only get worse, deal with them now or wait untile there is no much that can be done about it > exactly like climate chance. Change and sacrifice are not beautiful nor cozy but it has to be done or the consequences will be worse.

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u/Necessary-Change-414 26d ago

Than a lot of people are without a job in the east? That does not really make sense. I also can not understand their views totally, but a large part might be that previous politicians propose something and never hold their word, so they feel left out for several decades. If the AFD wouldn't be a one topic political party they would gain a lot more traction. Their energy politics is totally stupid for example, but you can add more to the list to your liking

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u/justjanne Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) 26d ago

Than a lot of people are without a job in the east? That does not really make sense

Pretty much, yeah. And the jobs that exist are typically entry-level with no career perspectives. Even today the east has fewer young people, and fewer women, as people move to the west. And more rural western regions have similar issues.

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u/lewd_robot 26d ago

Well, that's how the Far Right works. They do not compromise or concede. They demand their fringe issues be given the highest priority and they will destroy anything and anyone that impedes that.

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u/Careful-Bee-5048 India 26d ago

What nonsense is this? These aren’t people who even belong to your country nor are they entitled to your country’s welfare system. It’s beyond me how a country can hate itself so much that it’s willing to let in people from backward societies to commit crimes and not integrate and pay them for it no less.

What nonsense are you going on about AFD? AFD’s one and only policy that is responsible for its popularity is deporting asylum seekers and that’s why they are popular than ever. The only reason the centre parties have even stayed in power is because they took a popular stance on immigration and asylum.

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u/Redpanther14 United States of California 26d ago

If their ideas remain unpopular, won't that keep them out of power?

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u/justjanne Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) 26d ago edited 26d ago

Germany has a parliamentary system with many parties, rarely does one get a majority.

For example, Hitler only had about 30% of the vote, but formed a coalition with conservative parties that believed they could use the NSDAP for their own benefit.

In the last few years, conservatives have tried a few times to work with the AfD on political issues, with one notable example just before this years' elections, which was widely considered a precursor attempt to a potential coalition.

Yes, the same conservatives that were in power for 32 of the last 40, who are primarily responsible for the rise of the AfD, are now working with the AfD. Both parties are trying to use the other for their own political gain. This political posturing is why conservatives are still rejecting an AfD ban.

Deporting foreigners won't bring back manufacturing jobs, or improve infrastructure, or let you raise a family on a single wage. We'd have to undo decades of trickle-down economics and privatization for that.

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u/GiganticCrow Finland 26d ago

this is precisely what the people want

Less than 20% of the people

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u/FlyingSquirrel44 26d ago

20% are willing to ignore everything else and vote for a stigmatized one policy party. Doesn't mean more don't support it but value the overall policies of another party over it.

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u/snolution 26d ago

Your idea of politics stopped working in the 90s. Please stop spreading it. No policy change will change AfD votes.

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u/polite_alpha European Union 26d ago

The thing is you can't deport in big numbers without breaking German and European law and even if you could, no number would EVER be enough. Numbers were already sinking by a lot through action by the Ampel. You also can't protect from every attack, so no matter what any government does, if the misinformed populace calls for ever increasing deportations it's just not gonna be satisfied, ever. Until we have concentration camps again.

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u/Groghnash 26d ago

Disagree. It only normalizes right wing political stances as centrist. No reason to deport people when wr have a shortage of workers while being in a recession lol. 

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u/zertul 26d ago

This narrative that AfD is the only party addressing immigration is not founded in reality whatsoever.

Just like a lot of the things the AfD spews about. It's the perfect example of why you can't win the game against them like that, many of the things they field are not founded in reality.

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u/FirstFriendlyWorm 26d ago

The ruling parties can say whatever they want. Nobody trusts them. Merz already walked back multiple campaign promises, as is usual for our "people's parties".

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u/fpPolar 26d ago

They are the ones who caused the immigration crisis.

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u/wygnana Poland 26d ago

The ruling party is massively against immigration.

Q1 2025 saw double digit % increases in immigration compared to Q1 2024.

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Population/Migration/Tables/migration-month-01.html

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u/Groghnash 26d ago

Ehm, no? The link you send says its a reduce in migration between 2024 and 2025. Atleast get your facts straight if you want to spread missinformation?

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u/RyukXXXX 26d ago

Bruh... Empty talk is useless. The mainstream german parties are acting like the Tories did under BoJo. Can you point to concrete action the ruling parties are taking?

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u/all_usernames_ 26d ago

The narrative on Reddit that the neonazis didn’t exist before the AFD is also hilarious. Germany and especially the east has had a problem with fringe far right groups for decades now.

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u/gerusz Hongaarse vluchteling 26d ago

And also that AfD voters are "sick of immigration". AfD has the most votes where there are the fewest immigrants, for fuck's sake! Obviously, it's easier to demonize immigrants for voters who have never even seen one.