Trump’s technological billionaire, Elon Musk, threw his weight behind AFD, recently interviewing Weidel on his social media platform X. He aroused indignation for having declared that Germany should go from his guilt on His Nazi past. This week, he celebrated parliamentary measures to tighten the country’s borders and Merz’s decision to use AFD’s support.
What’s at stake?
The Merz campaign for the Chancellery, of one thing. Until now, his CDU has had a solid lead, although which shrinks, above AFD. The events of the last days could change everything.
Will the CDU decision to work with AFD allow more voters to contemplate more easily to do the same? Could Merz’s decision defend an anti-migrant program back, simply legitimize AFD’s conduct mission in the eyes of the electorate? Will voters choose AFD on the grounds that they prefer to have the original rather than a paler imitation?
And then there is the intervention of Merkel. She has disagreed with Merz since at least 2002, when she indeed excluded her from the management of the CDU. Since his return in 2022, he has moved the party to the right, canceling large parts of his inheritance, in particular on migration.
His reappearance – and the obvious disunity in the CDU – will they lead more voters in the arms of the AFD and his Chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel? Or more will centist voters abandon the CDU and the Scholz SPD or the Greens, who remain resolutely opposed to working with AFD?
Will AFD take power?
For the moment, it seems unlikely that AFD is part of any government of coalition in power, even if it increases more by voting on February 23. You want to work with AFD and it would take a monumental change to change this.
