How and why AfD shakes Germany
What they say in Germany after the AfD congress and the conversation on X between Musk and Weidel
The repeated cases of violence in Germany, widely emphasized on social media especially when committed by immigrant citizens, and the visibility provided by Elon Musk's unscrupulousness to the AfD leader Alice Weidel, with the live conversation on the X platform and the repeated messages of support, they give wings to the German far right. The latest survey just released by the Insa institute for the Sunday edition of Bild and prior to the congress which crowned Weidel as the party's candidate for chancellorship, assigns 22% to the AfD, approximately three percentage points more than the previous revelation . And it reduces the distance to 8 points with the first party, the Union of CDU and CSU given at 30%, itself down by a couple of points.
The opening of credit from the entrepreneur who set up the largest European gigafactory of his Tesla a stone's throw from Berlin is benefiting the party led by Weidel, which is experiencing a sort of media clearance after years of ostentatious ostracism. The so-called fire wall (Brandmauer) holds up on a political level but falters on the media level, at least the non-institutional one. Thanks to the internet and in particular to Musk. Because it is still true that, while for example in Italy the political news from Germany is monopolized these days by reports on and around Afd, on the news website of the first Ard television network the news of the turbulent congress held in Riesa ends up at the bottom of the reports on the SPD, the CDU and even on BSW, Sara Wagenknecht's left-wing populist party which until recently seemed the only political force capable of stealing consensus from AfD. Not anymore today.
On the social media front, the German political world was perhaps ready to counter the hidden attempts of Russian propaganda to influence the electoral campaign and the vote, but it found itself unprepared in the face of the incursions into broad daylight by someone who should also have a role not secondary within the Trump administration.
And if the conversation with Weidel did not leave any great consequences of content, rather a controversy that now engages the country's historians on the far-right leader's theory that Adolf Hitler was essentially a communist because he nationalized private companies, imposed very high taxes and in fact the his party was called National Socialist, Musk's focus on Germany and the AfD continues unabated. Musk's of the European Union. Furthermore, Breton admitted that such an intervention has already been carried out recently in Romania, where the result of the presidential elections was annulled for unproven reasons and which even Moscow's bitterest enemies consider to be at least dubious. It would be called interference, even when it is the European Union that carries it out.
These statements, which Musk promptly highlighted and stigmatized on
In the congressional speech that consecrated her as a candidate for the chancellorship, Weidel reiterated her critical vision of today's Germany. Unlike his recent meeting with Musk, where the tone had been more cordial, this time Weidel adopted a more aggressive and combative style, painting a very negative picture of the country and calling for the need for radical change. He particularly targeted the CDU, which he now sees electorally in his sights, and its leader Friedrich Merz, defined as his main political opponent and accused of copying the positions of the AfD.
His political agenda focused on a few key points: he openly supported the concept of “remigration” (which implies the expulsion of people with a migratory background, including German citizens), despite having distanced himself from this term in the past. He also proposed the total closure of Germany's borders.
Weidel's agenda also includes eliminating gender studies from universities, dismantling wind turbines and returning to nuclear energy, as well as reactivating Russia's Nordstream gas pipeline. With these measures, he claims to have a plan to make Germany "strong, rich and safe". His speech, characterized by sharp rhetoric and emphatic gestures such as a raised fist, was received enthusiastically by the delegates present. The race is on and this time the party openly aims to become the second political force in the country. The developments in neighboring Austria confirm a very delicate phase of politics in German-speaking Central Europe, where political, economic and public order crises are intertwined in an explosive mixture.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/afd-weidel-germania/ on Mon, 13 Jan 2025 06:51:14 +0000.