Upcoming German Elections and the Fight against Fascism

By Omnia Magdy

Federal elections will be held in Germany in February, and the fascist AfD will likely become the second-strongest party in parliament. Why are the fascists in Germany on the rise once again, and what can Socialists do against it?

Germany will hold parliamentary elections on the 23rd of February. Elections were to be held in September 2025, but then, in November 2024, the ruling coalition government collapsed. The three-party coalition government made up of the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens (Grüne), and Liberals (FDP) had been ruling the country since 2021, yet at the beginning of November 2024, disputes within the coalition burst over questions on the looming economic crisis of the country.

The FDP had demanded that public spending be further cut and new regulations halted. As tensions mounted, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) dismissed the FDP finance minister, Christian Lindner. This led to the FDP leaving the coalition government and moving into the opposition, resulting in Scholz issuing premature elections for 2025. Currently, the SPD and Greens are governing as a minority government in parliament.

AfD victories in state elections 2024

Polls suggest that in the upcoming elections, the right and far-right will be the winners. Already in September, three Eastern German state elections resulted in the fascist AfD (Alternative für Deutschland – Alternative for Germany) receiving large numbers of votes. In the state of Thuringia, the AfD received 32% of the votes and is currently the strongest party, followed by the right-wing CDU (Christian Democrats) at 23%. In Saxony, the AfD is the second strongest party in state parliament at 30%, with the CDU only marginally stronger at 31%. In Brandenburg, the AfD received 31% of the votes, with the SPD at 33%. In all three states (Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg), the AfD is not in a regional coalition government, as other party coalition constellations have hindered this from happening. Nonetheless, the AfD still exerts pivotal strength in said state parliaments. The AfD has seats in 14 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments.

The AfD election results in Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg are the first time since the demise of the Nazi regime in 1945 that a fascist party is this strong in German state elections. Recent polls for the upcoming federal elections in February show the AfD as the second strongest party at 21.5% (as opposed to 10.4% in the 2021 federal elections). Polls show that the CDU is at 31% while SPD is at 15,5%, Greens at 13.5%, BSW (Collation Sahra Wagenknecht) at 6.5%, FDP at 4%, Linke (Left) at 3%. The question is if the CDU would go into a coalition with the AfD on a federal level, which high-up officials in the CDU have claimed they would not. This remains to be seen.

Why has the fascist AfD been able to rise at such a rapid rate?

The success of the AfD must be seen in the context of racist fearmongering

Austerity measures by the ruling German government have led to worse living conditions for the German working class. Even Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock admitted this recently saying publicly that the government reduced spending on public infrastructure, like schools or public transportation, in order to ramp up military spending. In order to deflect from the fact that increased military spending or crumbling public infrastructure is not in the interest of the German working class, the German ruling class has once again whipped up the narrative that migrants are to blame for all societal ills. The manoeuvre of using racist talking points that scapegoat migrants to distract from horrific capitalist economic policies has effectively strengthened the AfD who itself wants massive tax breaks for the rich.

In the last months, the racist fearmongering that practically all parties in parliament participated in allowed for the talking points of the AfD to become normalized. The Social Democrats, Greens, as well as the “left-conservative” newly founded Coalition Sahra Wagenknecht (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht) all participated in calling for more deportations, for surveillance of “Islamists,” as well as reducing migration to Germany. Sahra Wagenknecht, a former member of the reformist pro-zionist Left party (Die Linke), which has dwindled in numbers due to its unclear policies on key issues, has for years been arguing that refugees and migrants are taking away jobs from Germans.

Purporting nationalistic protectionism of German workers, Wagenknecht argues that migrants are the cause of dwindling wages, not the capitalist class. Wagenknecht’s rhetoric pits members of the exploited class against each other and attempts to win over white German workers with racist talking points. Wagenknecht’s party is currently running campaigns that read, “Our country wants less migration!” Although Wagenknecht’s party asserts a strong stance against militarization and imperialist warfare, the party has watered down its stances in order to be in a coalition state government with the CDU in Thuringia.

The pro-Zionist reformist Left Party (Die Linke) has argued against deportations and criminalization of migrants. However, Die Linke has also participated in deportations in each state government that Die Linke has been a part of. On the question of Palestine, the party has lost all credibility as large parts of the party actively support Israel.

During the current election campaign, the Greens candidate for chancellor, Robert Habeck, has called for Syrian refugees who “don’t work” to be sent back to Syria. The Greens have demanded more deportations and warn against the “dangers of Islamism,” a bogeyman that marks five million Muslims in Germany as potential suspects.

The Christian Democrats’ candidate Friedrick Merz is notorious for whipping up racist talking points, for example, arguing last year that refugees are taking away dentist appointments from Germans. Recently, he demanded that Germans with dual nationality have their German citizenship revoked if they commit “crimes”. What these crimes are, he did not specify but later said that it means those who wave the Palestinian flag and deny Israel’s right to exist. In a country where calling “from the River to the sea, Palestine will be free” is categorized as terrorist propaganda for which one can get a criminal charge, it is clear who would be affected by such a law. Such a law would make every non-white German with migrant roots a second-class citizen. White Germans with no migrant roots cannot have their citizenship revoked because this would make them stateless, a result of the denaturalization of German Jews during the Nazi reign.

The Social Democrats’ candidate Olaf Scholz declared in October 2023, after the beginning of the Israeli genocide against Gaza, that “We have to deport on a large scale.” The SPD has demanded that deportations to Afghanistan and Syria be made possible again. Hoping to win over voters by implementing racist policies. Scholz has said that those who “glorify terrorist crimes” shall also be deported. The consequences of this are grave, as what constitutes “glorifying terrorist crimes” is extremely vague, as liking or sharing a pro-Palestine post online can already count as supporting “terrorist propaganda,” the Minister of Interior Nancy Faeser proudly stated.

The FDP and its candidate, Christian Lindner, have also voiced that they wish to enable deportations to Afghanistan. The FDP claims that refugees are “immigrating into the welfare state” and also warns of the threat of “Islamism.”

This racist climate has allowed the AfD to spread its ideas further into the “middle” of society. Yet the racist climate cannot be separated from the genocide in Gaza.

Gaza Genocide and the move to the Right of the German political establishment

In October 2023, shortly after the 7th of October, all parties in the German parliament, including the pro-Zionist Left Party (die Linke), CDU, SPD, FDP, Greens, and the fascist AfD unanimously voted together (for the first time in history) on a motion that granted full solidarity and support to Israel. It also argued that residency permits of migrants should be revoked if they support the Palestinian resistance.
Since then, virtually every party has supported authoritarian measures against the pro-Palestine movement. Over one year of genocide in Gaza, the ruling parties in Germany still stand unconditionally behind the Zionist state – militarily, politically and ideologically.

In a speech on the 10th of October, 2024, in front of the German parliament, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock of the Greens stated: “Self-defense means, of course, not only that one attacks terrorists but that one destroys them. That is why I have made it so clear when Hamas terrorists hide behind people, behind schools, then we get into very difficult issues, but we won’t shy away. That’s why I made it clear to the UN that civilian places can also lose their protected status because terrorists abuse it. That is what Germany stands for, and that is what Israel’s security means for us.”

The speech coincided with yet another massacre in Gaza, where civilians in the Al Aqsa hospital were burned alive. Dreadful videos show patients lying in beds in the tents of the hospital, unable to move, some still connected to their IV drips, as the flames of the fire caused by Israeli bombardments on the hospital engulf them. Baerbock legitimizes the burning alive of Palestinians by certifying her support for Israeli attacks on civilian areas as well as Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza in general.

A few days before Annalena Baerbock’s speech, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats declared in Parliament that Germany has delivered weapons to Israel and will continue to do so. Germany is the second largest weapons exporter to Israel after the USA, providing about 30% of Israel’s arms.

To uphold their Imperialist interests through the unconditional support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the German ruling class, at the same time, sees the necessity to crush the pro-Palestine movement within Germany. Polls show that 70% of Germans do not support Israel’s actions in Gaza. To keep this 70% from rising against military spending or weapons deliveries, the German ruling class has, both politically as well as in bourgeois media propaganda, violently attacked the pro-Palestine movement. Through criminalization and repressions, the vast majority of Germans are told that those calling for a free Palestine or even an end to genocide are “Islamists”, “antisemites”, and “terrorists”. As the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class, we should not be surprised that after one year of genocide, the bourgeois propaganda machinery is spewing the same narratives as it has done for over a year, if not decades, because upholding the Zionist entity is in the very interests of German imperialism.

The political establishment’s agreement that Palestine solidarity constitutes terrorist propaganda has played into the hands of the AfD. In November 2024, a resolution on “protecting Jewish life” that was brought in by the SPD, Greens, FDP, and CDU was passed in parliament together with the vote of the AfD and argued that “imported Muslim antisemitism” is a threat to Germany. It further argued that “Muslim Antisemites” should be deported. The AfD’s Beatrix von Storch (granddaughter of Hitler’s minister of finance) thanked the Greens in her speech in parliament thereafter, saying that the Greens have finally taken up AfD positions on imported antisemitism by Muslim immigrants. The AfD is a staunch supporter of Israel and has, time after time, declared its support for the genocide against Gaza.

The German establishment uses Muslims, immigrants, and refugees (especially those active in the Palestine solidarity movement) as a useful scapegoat to divert attention from real problems, i.e., rising inflation, rising costs of living, or poor infrastructure – problems that the German ruling class is responsible for. Hence, the narrative goes: Not 100 billion Euros for military spending or a ten percent increase in arms exports to Israel are a problem, but immigrants and Muslims. This fearmongering has played into the hands of the AfD. But who is the AfD?

AfD is a fascist threat

The AfD is a fascist party whose key figure is the fascist Björn Höcke, one of the party leaders who has been re-elected to the state parliament of Thuringia.
When the AfD was founded in 2013, the party initially aimed to leave the Euro and re-establish a national currency. This attracted a broad coalition of Euro skeptics, nationalists, and conservatives, unified in demanding less state, less social security, and overall more unbridled capitalism. In 2013, it was unclear which forces would propel this new party. Since then, it has become a fully-fledged fascist party set on establishing a terror regime in Germany.

Hereby, Höcke, who infamously uses Nazi rhetoric in his speeches, has played a central role. In 2015, he co-founded an ultra-nationalistic caucus called “The Wing” (der Flügel) and organized to position the party further to the right. While Höcke immediately made headlines through racist, Islamophobic, homophobic, and transphobic remarks, others were more careful and worked in the background to cement the Wing’s influence within the party. With the increase of people fleeing from Syria and Afghanistan since 2015, the AfD was able to capitalize on their xenophobia, racism, and islamophobia: the racist AfD ideology crept into the politics of all established parties, fueling divisive hate. In 2016, then-high-ranking politician of the AfD, Frauke Petry, even suggested shooting refugees at the borders. Under Angela Merkel, the general sentiment in Germany was, “We can do this.” Today, mainstream political opinion is to strengthen borders and build a “Fortress Europe.” This is also thanks to AfD politicians, who always sought center stage to platform their racist bigotry and were ultimately backed by the laws made by the social democrats and liberals.

Although “The Wing” has officially been disbanded since 2020, it should be common knowledge by now that Höcke and other AfD cadres are extremely well connected with the old neo-nazi milieu nationally as well as internationally, which helps them in their efforts to secure donations and organize street terror. In 2018 Höcke, his AfD wing, and open Neo-Nazis led marches through the city of Chemnitz, where pogrom-like attacks on refugees and migrants took place in broad daylight. The AfD openly supports and has built up the far-right, islamophobic PEGIDA movement in Dresden as well, which, in typical white supremacist jargon, warns of a “great replacement” in Germany.

Right now, the AfD uses their connections in the neo-nazi milieu to build up their small thuggish street groups that instill fear, especially in rural areas in former East Germany. So far, there is no terror organization like the Nazi’s paramilitary wing of stormtroopers (SA), but the level of violence is constantly increasing. Showing their true colors, Berlin landlord and AfD member Andreas Geithe “allegedly” wrote on Twitter, “We should found the stormtroopers and start to clean up!” He, too, could be connected to banned right-wing extremist parties from the 90s. Höcke and his supporters make it abundantly clear that they view the Nazi dictatorship in Germany as but a small fraction of Germany’s history.

Over time, this increased emphasis on far-right policy-making and organizing street terror made the more parliamentary-focused but not fascist members leave the party; examples include the former party leaders Petry and Meuthen. Some of the party conservatives, who previously had provided a bourgeois-democratic cover for the fascist wing, were even actively bullied out by Höcke and his supporters.

Due to the rising influence of Höcke’s Wing within the Party with their clear Nazi rhetoric, fascist political proposals, and active efforts to establish street terror, the party has consolidated itself as a fascist party. A fascist party that we, as revolutionary socialists, must do everything to fight against.
Although the established bourgeois German parties claim that they don’t want anything to do with AfD, last year, it was revealed that ties are closer than they would like to admit. Journalists infiltrated a secret meeting in Potsdam where AfD cadres tried to make plans for the mass deportation of refugees, German citizens with a “migrant background,” and anyone deemed “non-German.”

This meeting shed light on the fascist ideology of AfD’s plan to institute a reign of terror. Attendees of the secret meeting included not only AfD members and other right-wing groups but also members from the conservative Christian Democratic party. Similar meetings have been taking place since 2021.

These revelations sparked public outrage and short but large demonstrations against the AfD. But instead of showing a clear profile against the fascists, German mainstream politicians continued to pass policies that played right into their hands, which led to further gains for AfD in the polls.
So what can socialists do against the rise of the far right?

We Need a United Front

Reformists like the Greens and Social Democrats have argued that one can beat the fascists through parliamentary elections. They are mistaken. Calls to ban the AfD are also mistaken as the bourgeois state can never be a reliable partner in the fight against fascism. Banning fascists will not root out the capitalist basis on which fascism grows.

The fascists must be smashed in the streets. We need a sustained mass movement supported by the unions and a broad coalition of organizations that works within a united front to fight against the fascist AfD and their allies. Individual protests can only be a starting point. The Nazis need to encounter masses that oppose them everywhere they go. We saw this in June 2024 when thousands of antifascists flooded the city of Essen to demonstrate against the party assembly of the AfD.

Just recently, on the 11th of January 2025, thousands of antifascists traveled to the tiny city of Riesa to demonstrate against and block the AfD party assembly. The protestors were able to delay the party assembly by two hours. However, in the end, the AfD was able to hold its party assembly, and the fascist Alice Weidel, who accused the protestors of being “red-painted Nazis,” was elected as chancellor candidate. The police violence that was used against the protestors in Riesa had been tested for 14 months on pro-Palestine demonstrations, specifically in Berlin. Mainstream journalists who were in Riesa showed shock at the level of police violence, to which activists from the pro-Palestine movement answered that Riesa was only a tiny piece of the broken ribs, hospitalizations and overall violence that they had faced on a weekly basis for merely calling for the decolonization of Palestine.

AfD and Zionism: Combining the movement against them

The AfD is a pro-zionist party. A few days prior to the party assembly in Riesa, Alice Weidel, in an interview with Elon Musk, said that a Palestinian-leftist conspiracy is following in the antisemitic legacy of Adolf Hitler, who she claims was actually a communist. This vile historical revisionism is startling but not surprising if one looks at the way that fascists from the AfD have been claiming for years that Muslim and Arab immigrants are to blame for anti-Semitism in Germany. The AfD has staunchly supported Israel’s genocidal war, while purporting that the Nazi dictatorship was a mere “birdshit” of history.

The protests in Essen and Riesa were essential steps in the mass mobilization against the AfD. However, there must be an impetus for renewed organizing efforts on a national scale. We antifascists must organize under a united front and block the fascists everywhere where they show up. Focusing on AfD party assemblies is not enough.
We need a sustained mass movement supported by the unions and a broad coalition of organizations that works within a united front to fight against the fascist AfD and their allies. Individual protests can only be a starting point. The Nazis need to encounter masses that oppose them everywhere they go.

Simultaneously, we have seen that the reformists and the pro-Zionist Die Linke party are unable and unwilling to combine the anti-fascist struggle and pro-Palestine work. The fight against fascism must be connected to the struggle against the genocide in Gaza. Revolutionary Socialists must work to reach that 70% of Germans who do not support Israel’s actions in Gaza and whom bourgeois propaganda is fighting to keep docile and scared of joining the pro-Palestine movement. Fascists from the AfD are some of the most adamant supporters of the fascists within the Israeli state and the Zionist project as such and are at the forefront of accusing Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians of spreading “imported antisemitism,” “Islamism” and “terror.”

In united fronts against fascism, we must show that the capitalist system feeds off of exploitation and oppression. Genocide in Palestine is a lucrative business for the German capital. We see that when capitalism is in crisis, the fascists rise and the danger of a fascist takeover is very real. Times of intensifying crises benefit fascist movements the most.

Within such united fronts, Revolutionary Socialists must show why we need a revolutionary alternative and win over people into one’s own rank and file. Hence, it is our duty as an organization to organize an anti-fascist resistance for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, who are currently the main target of right-wing hate. These two movements should and must not be separated but belong organically together.