June 23rd 2016 was by far one of the
most traumatic days for the European
Union on that day almost 52% of British
citizens decided that their country
should pack its back and leave the EU
block once and for all of course brexit
was about to open the Pandora's box of
independence from Europe after all if
the UK could pack up and leave then why
couldn't anyone else in the brexit party
we love Europe we just hate the European
Union it's as simple as that the point
is that since then more and more
countries in the block have clashed with
Brussels two in particular Victor
orban's Hungary and P's Poland
nevertheless the departure of another
member seemed out of the question until
now anti- Brussels sentiment has grown
in recent years and we have even
recently encountered this German
far-right leader hails brexit as model
for Germany Germany's farri afd derides
EU as failed project now the Unstoppable
electoral growth of alternative for
Germany has naturally led to its
proposals beginning to be taken
seriously and you can see that right now
a group that according to the polls is
already the second largest political
group in Germany wants nothing to do
with Brussels and the European Union and
yet this is totally different from what
we have seen in Poland or Hungary why is
that because Germany plays in a
different League we are talking about
the largest economic industrial and
financial power in the block the role
model the great reference and at the
same time the most influential player in
the development of the European Union
without Germany the community project
would simply make no sense and of course
this has caused us at visual politic to
ask a few questions could Germany really
leave the EU and how seriously do we
have to take the proposal of alternative
for Germany and could this party be in a
position to challenge for power soon
well we're going to get into all of this
and More in today's video video fire up
your engines and let's get
started Let's see we always hear Germany
is the heart of the European Union
surely we all remember former Chancellor
Angela Merkel setting the road map for
the entire Union and although these days
Olaf Schultz her successor is far from
having the same role let's not fool
ourselves Germany is still Germany just
taking a glance at the money is enough
to understand the weight and influence
that Germany has in Brussels Germany is
by far the biggest contributor to the
European budget it makes sense it is one
of the richest members and by far the
largest economy by itself Germany
accounts for a quarter of the entire GDP
of the European Union you could say that
the European Union is a kind of Monopoly
game where Germany is the bank and if
the bank leaves naturally the game is
over of course with this in mind I think
we can all fully understand that an
eventual German exit from the EU would
be a blow of such a degree that Brussels
could never recover now is this really
possible well what can I say at the
moment it does not seem very likely
however don't tell me that it is not
striking that this message is beginning
to get through strongly in what up until
now has been the most pro-an country
among the pro- Europeans in any case the
idea of imagining a Germany divorced
from Brussels is far from our idea but
rather that of the tonic party that is
rising the most in the polls I'm talking
of course about alternative for Germany
but who are they what exactly does this
party stand for what political potential
does it have does it really pose a
threat to the European Union well visual
politic viewers let's start by getting
to know them a little
better a hard
metamorphosis alternative for Germany is
a political party that was founded in
2013 at that time it was driven by
economists and politicians who were part
of or at least very close to the
Christian Democratic Union the UCD the
party which at that time held power
through Angela Merkel and so at first
the afd advocated above all such things
as reducing the size of the state
lowering taxes improving relations with
the United States and strengthening NATO
its political position was shall we say
very close to Classical liberalism its
spokesman even publicly presented the
British conservative party as its role
model at this stage the attacks on the
European model were based mainly on
criticism of the countries in southern
Europe and also on the outright
rejection of Germany having to take on
bailouts such as the one given to Greece
but apart from that we cannot say that
it was a party we could label as a
euroskeptic
project however since then things have
changed a
lot as time went by the more
conservative and nationalist profiles
gained influence within the party in
fact in 2015 tensions between the
moderate wing and the radical wing of
this formation exploded when the sector
led by lucer endured internal Rebellion
from the more radicalized profiles such
as frala Petri and Jurg meran the
situation was so tense that the party
Congress had to be suspended several
times but in the end as you could
probably guess it was the most
conservative and radicalized sector that
won the day and took control that
Victory caused not only looker to leave
the party but also along with him
virtually the entire moderate faction
left of course when the moderates left
the party alternative for Germany or afd
now untethered staged a sharp shift to
the right particularly towards alt-right
positions that is positions strongly
focused on Nationalist identitarian and
anti-globalization messages and so in
Europe they had to leave the
conservative block they were kicked out
and join the identity and democracy
block which is precisely the group
within the Euro Parliament where we can
find other deeply Eur skeptic formations
such as the Freedom Party of Austria or
the national rally of France led by
Marine Leen so the question seems quite
clear what exactly does alternative for
Germany stand for today and why are they
winning the hearts of so many Germans
well pay
attention as we've already said the
origin of this party was fundamentally
motivated by the rejection of the way
things were handled in Europe after the
global financial crisis of 2008 however
following the outright rebellion of 2015
the party has focused primarily on
questioning Germany's and the eu's
migration policies as well as its trade
relations with the rest of the world
this focus is so intensive that this
party's proposals on employment health
education energy and security policies
are almost
non-existent alternative for Germany is
gaining many followers thanks to its
firm position on restricting access to
all those immigrants who cannot meet
High entry requirements in terms of
income or qualifications in other words
to put an end to the arrival of
irregular migrants or migrants from
poorer countries and to take on the
European Union's Refugee policy in
particular once and for all and not only
that in recent times this party has made
Headlines by starting to argue for the
idea of remigration that is to implement
deportations and mass expulsions in
order to expel from Germany all those
immigrants who have entered illegally
this line of message is what is
catapulting them in the
polls nevertheless even if she did agree
with some of the brexit arguments on
immigration fral cetri the party leader
after the 2015 Rebellion never dared to
raise the possibility of following in
the footsteps of the United Kingdom
quite the contrary she talked about
reforming the European Union check it
out from a German point of view I do not
want Britain to leave because um doing
that we would as Germans lose a very
strong partner um in reforming the EU so
personally I'd like them to stay but but
visual politics viewers pay close
attention because here comes a new turn
of
events in 2017 frala Petri stepped down
as party leader saying that the party
had become too anarchic to the point
that it was impossible to turn it into a
credible platform her successor was jur
meran who then began to lead from the
moderate wing of the party but wait a
minute the moderate Wing but weren't
they supposed to have left already well
yes but when you're dealing with
extremes there is always a bit of
political space to turn the one who was
first labeled as radical into a moderate
such are politics in other words when
Petri managed to OU looker in 2015 the
more nationalist Wing was supposed to
have triumphed the problem is that this
quickly became the moderate Wing as
other sectors of the party became even
more radicalized it was right then that
anti-semetic xenophobic and even
Neo-Nazi Wings emerged grouped in a
party line called de flugal by 2020 the
situation had reached such a boiling
point that the federal office for the
protection of the Constitution announced
nothing less than an investigation into
this internal faction of alternative for
Germany well the outcome was that when
Jurg murphin stepped down as party
leader in 2022 the door was opened for
sections of der flugal faction to take
much more power and control and yes we
are talking about at least three major
waves of political radicalization in
just 8 years the question is exactly how
extreme is this party today why is it
gaining more and more popularity well
pay close attention because between
Moscow keev and Brussels we are in for a
lot of
surprises exchanging beer for
vodka well it never rains but it pours
suddenly the war in Ukraine plunged our
protagonist into the crossroads you see
it has been known at least since 2016
the some party heavyweights have
maintained close ties with Moscow in
fact until recently the youth groupings
of alternative for Germany made
exchanges with comrade Putin's own party
this proximity meant that a large part
of this political formation not only did
not declare itself against the Russian
offensive but also pointed the finger
directly against NATO and the us as
being responsible for what happened you
don't believe us then take a look at the
statements of the Bavarian branch of
this party from back in May 2023 B IA
must be a bridge builder between east
and west and not support the unilateral
interests of Biden USA and geopolitics
for a selective division of Eurasia we
demand that the Free State immediately
start talks follow the example of
Hungary and Serbia to ensure the secure
supply of gas for the economy and
households in Bavaria for many afd
heavyweights the war in Ukraine is the
result of us expansionism in Eastern
Europe for them the EU is little more
than a lap dog of Washington Bend on
Breaking the good neighborliness
promoted by comrade Putin in fact that
is not even the end of it the truth is
that within this party there are many
voices defending a foreign policy in
favor of Eurasia a new foreign policy
that prioritizes ties with Russia and
China over the historical relationship
with the US however these premises not
only resonate with the afd's
heavyweights but also and perhaps above
all with its
voters the proportion of Germans who are
agree with giving in to Putin's
aspirations or of limiting the military
ties to Ukraine in the long term is
largely made up of alternative for
Germany voters and it is right here that
things start to get tricky because we
are not only talking about the possible
break between Berlin and the EU but
about a whole much broader repositioning
of Germany completely away from the West
For Better or For Worse the post brexit
UK maintained its relations with Europe
and the US in fact as we already saw for
one of the top brexit ideologues said in
his farewell speech that the problem was
the EU not Europe however this possible
dexit has much more dangerous undertones
the rise of the afd is pushing a good
proportion of the political Spectrum in
Germany towards much more anti-western
positions but is this really possible
and how much has the popularity of this
party grown well pay
attention alternative in the long term
the current face of the afd has a name
and a surname Alice vdal she has been
leading the Party Block in the bundestag
since 2017 but it was in June 2022 when
she took over the co-chairmanship of the
formation today it is she who holds the
Reigns of the party vadal is an
extremely unusual politician who can
help us to understand very well the
current nature of this political
formation first of all her political
Beginnings were in the pr Market fdp
party and not in the CDU as was the case
with the first founding group of
alternative for Germany on the other
hand her personal life stands in stark
contrast to the premises of several
party heavyweights for example vdal is
in a civil partnership with Sarah bosard
a Sri Lankan film producer who lives in
Switzerland the couple has two adopted
children interestingly this has not
limited either vdal nor the afd itself
from voicing fierce opposition to
same-sex marriage despite the fact that
she herself the party leader is in a
relationship with another woman she
justifies herself by saying that she is
in favor of civil unions and that the
argument for what she calls other
Lifestyles surprising don't you think
but such is
Politics the fact is that this enormous
flexibility between her political and
personal life makes it easier for us to
understand just how how daring Alice
vadal is do you remember that some
former Party leaders had ended up
leaving the party because it was
considered too anarchic well this is
exactly where this young German woman is
doing her best since 2017 vdal has
declared war on the Nationalist ravings
that according to her have greatly
harmed the Electoral potential of the
formation her project is to succeed in
tying up loose ends in order to make it
possible for the party to engage in
serious debates you could say that she
wants to create a much more monolithic
cohesive block with the capacity of
reaching a larger
public oration on your own since 2021
vdal has been pushing the idea that
Germany could leave the EU on the
political agenda but why are the alerts
going off right now well basically
because as we told you earlier the party
is shooting up in the
polls in the aftermath of the pandemic
the afd has seen meteoric growth
especially perhaps thanks to the growing
unpopularity of the governing Coalition
formed by the social Democrats the Green
Party party and the Liberals now the
polls show that alternative for Germany
will become the second largest
parliamentary Force in Germany in other
words we are not talking about a party
made up of a few
Misfits but wait a minute because the
time has come to Pour some cold water on
this whole story the afd's growth in
popularity has been mainly due to the
disenchantments that other voters have
had with their own parties we are
talking about a very heterogeneous and
therefore very unstable flow of Voters
for example a July 2023 opinion poll
showed that afd voters were by far the
least connected to the party's ideas in
other words the current popularity of
this platform could be temporary and
unsustainable in the medium and long
term for Alice vadal however the current
situation is a very good starting point
the afd has gained a strong electoral
foothold particularly in the poorer
Eastern areas of the country from there
vadal has recently commented that her
party will work to achieve a majority of
it its own by the end of the decade and
the truth is that they don't have much
choice either alternative for Germany
knows that it is almost impossible for
any party to want to form a co-gn with
their platform so they could only come
to power with a landslide Victory which
doesn't really seem possible be that as
it may for now it's over to you what do
you think of alternative for Germany do
you think they can increase their
influence in European politics and will
Alice vadal be the person to tidy up and
professionalize this political grouping
once and for all leave us your answers
in the comments and let's open a debate
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