Has Germany’s ‘firewall’ against the far right been breached by AfD success?

One in five Germans put an X in the box for the alternative for Germany (AFD) on Sunday: a record result which made it the second greatest strength of German politics.

On the back of this success, the party now calls for the end of the consensus in German politics not to work with the extreme right.

This “firewall” – Brandmauer In German – has worked since the end of the Second World War, but the spouse of AFD, Tino Chrupalla, says: “Whoever erects firewalls will be burned behind them.”

There is a determination among all the main German parties to maintain this block in place – and the German public supports them: 69% see AFD as a threat to democracy, according to the voters interviewed on Sunday.

Friedrich Merz, who won the election of conservatives, believes that the only reason why AFD exists is due to problems such as migration and security that must be addressed: “We must solve these problems … So this Part, AFD, will disappear.

AFD won 20.8% of the votes nationwide, and as the light blue areas of the map show, it was dominant in the East five states, obtaining 34%.

“The Eastern Germans clearly indicated that they no longer wanted a firewall,” said Tino Chrupalla.

Friedrich Merz will now enter into talks on the formation of a government with the Social Democrats, who arrived third.

Even if his party won 28.6% of the votes, it was still their second first result since the Second World War.

AFD support has doubled, and one million of their voters deserted the Merz conservatives for them, according to a survey by the Research Institute Infrate Dimap.

Voters have not been put off by the fact that the internal intelligence of Germany classifies AFD parts as a right -wing extremist – or that the party has now adopted a policy called “remigration”.

AFD argues that remigration means to expel immigrants found guilty of crime, but the term was used by the extreme right to signify mass deportations.

One of the big problems for Christian Democrats is how to recover their voters and stop losing more.

Merz has already flirted with AFD in Parliament, based on their votes to target a motion on migration.

But it was clearly stung by a public outcry and the mass events that followed in many German cities.

It is unlikely that the Chancellor of Germany is the test again, especially if he forms a government with the center-left.

But now, AFD has more than 150 seats in Parliament, its supporters believe in particular that it is time for the firewall to leave.

“I just hope that the firewall will fall. But we all know that it will not be like that,” said Celina Brychcy, 26.

“I think it will fall at the latest when new elections will take place. Then they will have to realize at some point that they cannot pass with what they are doing right now.”

“I think the Brandmauer Stay, “explains Dominic, 30, who voted for AFD in Saxony.” I want the government to really think of their own people and their own country. “”

The pressure to eliminate the longtime firewall does not only come from AFD, but also from the main figures from the Trump administration, notably the American vice-president JD Vance and Elon Musk, who has repeatedly supported the party.

Most of the voices you intend to contest the firewall come from the East, which may not be surprising given the deep scope of AFD, especially in the five Eastern States on A total of 16 across Germany.

They won 38.6% of the votes in Thuringing and 37.% in both Saxony and Saxony-Anhaltfar ahead of the CDU. This makes them more and more difficult to keep next to the arm.

On one of the big talkshows of German television Monday evening, Harsh but just, a local mayor of Saxony, Mirko Geissler, thought that AFD should be put on the “playground”, so that they can show this that they could do. Otherwise, they would eventually go to 40 to 50% in the ballot boxes, he warned.

Liane Bach, independent mayor of a village in Thuringiaa, said that in his region, “AFD voters are not right -wing extremists”.

A CDU politician in the program, Philippe Anthor, conceded that there should be “no firewall between democratic parties and people who vote AFD”.

This is the main problem that the main parties will have to tackle. How to avoid ostracizing AFD voters who clearly have no problem with the firewall.

A mayor stressed that one of his resident colleagues who was also an AFD counselor repaired the local fountain. It didn’t make sense not to work with him.

Professor Conrad Ziller of the University of Duisburg-Essen believes that the greatest threat to the firewall could occur at the level of the state rather than the national scale.

“If you have trouble building a coalition in a state, then at some point, there could be a minority government that is based on AFD or gets the votes of AFD from time to time.”

At the national level, the worst case would be a breakdown in a coalition led by Merz: “Merz could make mistakes. If it becomes really difficult for immigration, it could become problematic with the SPD.”

Germany has already seen a first election due to a collaps in the Coalition, and the AFD Alice Weidel clearly indicated that it was looking for early elections.

Her repeated appearances on the electoral debates of television made her a leading figure in Germany and helped to enhance the profile of her party.

But that was the emphasis on the migration and security that became the number one question for AFD voters, partly fueled by three murderous attacks, all allegedly carried out by immigrants.

The fight against insecurity and perception of it will be an immediate task for the next government, when it will eventually take shape.

Under the emergency, the chief of the center-right of Bavaria, Markus Söder, said that the need to fight immigration, as well as the failing economy of Germany, was “in fact, the last ball of democracy”.

There is no question of raping the longtime firewall for the moment.

And the secretary general of the Merz party, Tom Unger, was categorical that he should not be collaboration with a party which opposed the bonds of Germany with the West, its belonging to the ‘NATO and to “the European idea”.

It was incompatible, he said, with “basic DNA” of the conservatives.