After losing members, Germany’s far-right party has seen strong growth and is close to the 50,000 mark. Political scientists see the effects of social polarization Despite a series of setbacks and scandals, the German far-right party AfD has been recording a growing number of members for several months, broadcaster ARD reported on Saturday (22/06).
The AfD currently has around 48,000 members, according to information obtained by the Berlin branch of the ARD from the party’s national leadership, which expects to reach the 50,000 mark in the next four to eight weeks.
The AfD wants to publicly celebrate the increase in membership and plans to launch an advertising campaign to encourage even more people to join.
At the beginning of 2023 the AfD announced that it had reached 40,000 members, an increase of a third in a year.
Accusations of espionage and corruption against the main candidate in the European elections, the classification by German authorities of suspected right-wing extremism and public protests against plans to expel immigrants discussed at an event in Potsdam do not appear to have affected the popularity of the AfD program in some sectors of German society.
In the recent European elections the party obtained 15.9% of the votes and was second only to the alliance between the conservative parties CDU and CSU with 30%.
Just two years ago the AfD’s situation was completely different: between July 2020 and July 2022 the number of members had decreased significantly, from 33,800 to 28,600.
Political scientists explain the current growth by saying that the AfD benefits from social polarization. The AfD and the Greens constitute “the most obvious sociopolitical poles”, political scientist Benjamin Höhne of the University of Magdeburg explained earlier this year to explain the increase in the number of members of both parties.
According to him, the Green Party represents progressive positions, while the AfD represents conservative and authoritarian social demands.
as (ARD)
Source: Terra
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