Anti-migrant AfD seeks to break Germany’s political ‘firewall’ in historic state election

Steelman: both sides, in good faith

The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.

The case for

Supporters of the AfD's rise argue that mainstream parties have for years dismissed legitimate public concerns about immigration levels, integration strains and border security, particularly in eastern states that feel economically and culturally left behind since reunification. They contend that treating a party which won a fifth of the national vote as untouchable is itself undemocratic, denying millions of voters a voice and fuelling the very alienation it claims to guard against. On policy, they argue that tighter border controls, a review of Schengen's open frontiers and reassessing protected status once the situations prompting it have changed are reasonable responses to genuine strains on housing, services and social cohesion, not extremism. They see the 'firewall' as an elite cordon that stifles debate rather than a principled defence of democracy.

The case against

Those defending the firewall argue that Germany's post-war consensus of refusing to normalise or govern with parties assessed by its own security services as right-wing extremist is a hard-won safeguard, not an act of elitism, given the country's specific history. They point to the AfD's rhetoric around 'Islamisation', mass deportations and stripping protections from Syrians as targeting vulnerable people and minorities rather than addressing policy on its merits, and warn that mainstreaming such language risks eroding protections that took generations to build. They accept that immigration concerns are real and must be addressed, but argue this can and should be done by mainstream parties tightening policy through normal democratic channels, not by legitimising a movement whose leadership includes figures with documented extremist links. For them, cooperation would trade a temporary political headache for a lasting institutional and moral cost.