The German party alternatives for Germany (AfD) has grown ever larger since its inception in 2013. Today, the right -wing nationalist party is Germany’s second largest, but the views on the party are polarized.
SVT News has met Norbert Kleinwächt to talk about what has led to the party’s popularity.
– The AfD is the only answer to the incompetence that prevails among the ruling parties we have in Germany. There is a great dissatisfaction with this government and the former government, says Norbert Kleinwächter.
He believes that German dissatisfaction has caved for a long time in the country and that it becomes stronger every year.
– People have seen for over a decade that their lives are getting worse every year, that the German conditions are worse every year, financial conditions, security conditions and conditions for freedom that I would call them and AfD have answers to all these questions, says Kleinwächter.
Denies connections to extremism and Nazism
But the views on the AfD are, as I said, polarized in Germany.
For example, the AfD has been classified as an extreme right party in three separate German states. A number of people within the party have also been convicted of using, among other things, Nazi slogans. Despite this, Kleinwächter believes that the allegations of extremism within the party do not match reality.
– I have not met a single extremist within the AfD, says Kleinwächter.
– AfD does not tolerate extremism, as soon as we find an extremist member we exclude the extremist member and this has happened several times, Kleinwächter continues later.
Although representatives from the party repeatedly deny links to the German Nazi time, the charges return.
– We do not want to be linked to the Nazi time and we have nothing to do with the Nazis It is very important to us that it is clear and all our political opponents take up our so -called examples of Nazi connections but that is not true. There are no Nazis in our party and we have no such opinions within the party, says Kleinwächter.