Alice Elisabeth Weidel, co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party approved an electoral program that includes promises to close the border, “remigrate” immigrants, exit the euro and reintroduce compulsory military service.
At a time when polls give it the best results for a year and place it as the second force in the February 23 elections, the AfD approved the program at the congress, which also appointed its co-leader Alice Weidel as an official candidate for chancellor in the February elections.
“We are getting stronger”, exclaimed Weidel at the end of the congress.
The program adopted this Sunday includes the controversial term “remigration”, coined by right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis to designate the mass expulsion of migrants and people with foreign roots.
The AfD officially states that “remigration” refers only to the expulsion of illegal immigrants by legal means, but the term is often used in far-right circles as the expulsion of citizens of other cultures.
Traditional family and “no” to mandatory vaccination
Despite the fact that candidate Weidel has a woman as a partner, with whom she is the mother of two children, the delegates voted in favor of including in the program that the traditional family, “father, mother and children”is the basic cell of society. They also voted against mandatory measles vaccination for schoolchildren in Germany.
Congress also approved the creation of a new youth organization integrated into the party, after tensions increased with the Young Alternative (JA), classified as extremist by German authorities in 2023.
According to the latest polls, the AfD is enjoying its highest popularity in a year, with an increase of two points in the last month for 21-22% in voting intentions.
The historic victory of the far right in the regional elections left the government coalition led by Olaf Scholz under fire.
The party, which is an ally of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, would be second only to Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic bloc, which stands at 30%.
