Bevo and SH,
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is relatively new (last five or six years). I first heard about them back in 2013 during the federal elections. Their big unifying issue back then was Euroscepticism - hostility to the EU, a gradual withdrawal from the Eurozone (dropping the Euro and presumably bringing back the Deutsche Mark), and opposition to the Greek bailouts. I don't remember immigration being a big issue for them at the time, but of course, the migrant crisis hadn't occurred yet. They seem to run single issue campaigns, but if you look at their
website (use Google Chrome unless you know German), they do have positions on most major issues.
What I think is noteworthy about AfD is that they offer people who are at least somewhat nationalistic a political party that isn't nutty. All the other major political parties (the center-right Christian Democrats, the center-left Social Democrats, the economic libertarian Free Democrats, the Greens, and Die Linke (the successor to the former East German communists)) are pro-European integration, pro-Euro, and generally favorable to admitting migrants.
The other nationalist party is the National Democratic Party (NPD), which walks on the line of neo-Nazism. Like AfD, they are anti-EU, anti-Euro, and anti-migrant. However, they are far more extreme, use inflammatory rhetoric, and are overtly "Nordic" (a nice way of saying Aryan) - lots of cute, blonde haired, blue eyed girls in their ads. They also advocate withdrawal from NATO and hint at an aggressive foreign policy. For example, they once displayed a map of Germany that included Austria and the former eastern territories of Germany, which are now part of Poland and Russia. Not good.
AfD is far more pragmatic than the NPD on the EU, Euro, and the migrant issue, far less inflammatory in their rhetoric, and doesn't include the racism, picking fights with the rest of Europe, and hinting about bringing back the Anschluß and invading Poland. Basically, if you aren't ashamed to be a German but aren't a neo-Nazi, the AfD is for you.
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