Support for the AfD is rising rapidly, particularly in rural areas struggling economically and with poor infrastructure, and where politicians such as Björn Höcke, the AfD’s leader in Thuringia, and Maximilian Krah, an MEP and the party’s top candidate in the 2024 European parliament elections, are regarded as role models for many young men despite numerous scandals.
The 2025 election campaign slogan, Alice für Deutschland (Alice for Germany), is strongly reminiscent of the slogan of the Sturmabteilung (SA, or Storm Division, the Nazi party’s paramilitary wing) Alles für Deutschland (Everything for Germany).
Björn Höcke, the AfD’s leader in Thuringia and head of its nationalist wing, speaks at the Domplatz in Erfurt during the party’s final campaign event before state elections, 31 August 2024.
The new-right influencer Ketzer der Neuzeit, real name Leonard Jäger, interviews the AfD co-leader Alice Weidel after the conclusion of the federal convention in Riesa, Saxony, 12 January 2025.
The AfD has since invited Musk to a campaign event, despite him making a gesture that was widely interpreted in Germany as a Hitler salute.
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