Paper accepted on 25 July 2025
https://doi.org/10.18485/sres.2025.4.1.4
ABSTRACT: Following the federal elections of February 2025, the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) emerged as the second-largest party in the Bundestag. Given its status as a relatively young political organization—often classified as far-right—the question of its role within the Federal Republic of Germany has become a pertinent subject of inquiry. This study proposes that the rise of the AfD is a response to the long-term leftward shift of the political spectrum, as theorized by Habermas. The first section of the paper examines the social democratization of the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU) and the state of German conservatism prior to the establishment of the AfD before considering the responses of other political actors toward this emerging force on the right. The third section explores the internal ideological frictions within the AfD concerning its strategic direction and ongoing efforts to finalize its party identity. Finally, the study provides a brief overview of the AfD’s electoral performance in the most recent federal elections, as well as the structural composition of its voter base.
KEY WORDS: Alternative for Germany, Christian Democratic Union, Federal Republic of Germany, conservatism, right-wing politics.
