Green Party leader Katharina Dröge believes that the recent electoral gains of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) are not primarily driven by immigration. Instead, she attributes the party’s rise to the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, other ongoing conflicts, and the widespread dissemination of fake news.
The Green Party leader acknowledged that while there are numerous migration-related challenges the next government must tackle, migrants should not be used as scapegoats for political failures. She emphasized that solutions to migration issues must be socially acceptable. She also noted that migration has been the subject of continuous and intensive debate, but argued that these discussions are not what fueled the AfD’s strong performance in the recent elections.
However, journalist Markus Lanz countered that the dramatic rise of the far-right AfD could be attributed to the waves of migration since 2015. “If you claim there’s no causal relationship,” Lanz told the Green leader, “consider this: in 2015, the AfD had just 3% support. By 2016, 2017, and in the following years, the number of migrants in the country remained relatively low, but gradually—again, I’m not passing judgment, just describing the situation—a sense of lost control began to take hold. You say there’s no connection between these events. Really?”
Wolfgang Merkel, a democracy scholar who views migration as a key factor in the rise of the far-right, agreed: “To claim that there’s no connection is a fundamentally flawed analysis. It’s very much about whether we want it or not.”
According to Merkel, Germany needs a new strategy to address the rise of the far-right and reduce the electoral strength of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). He criticized the German political parties for adopting a policy of exclusion towards the AfD, arguing that this approach backfired by pushing many voters toward the far-right.
Merkel concurred with the Green Party leader that the rise of the far-right can be attributed to a variety of factors, including disinformation, targeted campaigns of discrimination led by Russia, and various crises such as wars and political conflict
