Germany’s far-right party “Alternative for Germany” (AzG) said that the number of its members has increased sharply, BTA reported.
They are currently 40,131, which is about 37% more than at the end of 2022, Alternative for Germany reported today. At the end of 2022, the party had 29,296 members. At that time, all other parties in the Bundestag had significantly larger numbers of members.
Polls suggest that up to 23% of Germans would vote for “AfD” if federal elections were held now. This means that for the first time it would be the second strongest party – after the Christian Democratic Union.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has categorized AzG as an alleged right-wing extremist party. The party’s provincial branches in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt are now categorized as confirmed far-right.
Despite the strong positions of the AzG in the polls, according to the leader of the center-left German Social Democratic Party Saskia Esken, the ban of the AzG remains a possible option. “Such a ban on parties rightly faces major obstacles. But I am convinced that we should continue to consider it as an option,” Esken told DPA. “It’s important that we are talking about banning the AZG and that the voters are hesitant,” she adds.
Esken, who is on paper the leader of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, although he has the final say on all matters, believes that the AzG is part of a far-right network, that it maintains lists of the names of journalists critical of the far right and creates portals for reporting teachers who are also critical of her. “She uses every topic to incite people. To me, that’s definitely anti-democratic,” Esken says.
Recently, the AZG made significant gains in the provincial elections in West Germany and won mayoral and deputy mayor elections in the eastern part of the country.
In September, elections will be held in three East German states – Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. In all three provinces, AzG leads in the polls. It is not excluded that she will win an absolute majority in the parliament in at least one of the provinces and will be able to produce a provincial prime minister.
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2024-01-02 17:23:00
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