By all accounts, Friedrich Merz was supposed to be the man who would rescue the Christian Democrats from irrelevance and extinguish the rising fire of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). He returned to politics in 2018 with fanfare, bold promises, and a sharp tongue aimed squarely at the party that had dared to voice the frustrations of millions of Germans abandoned by Berlin’s political elite. “You can’t get rid of the AfD in the short term,” Merz had said, “but you can halve it.”
Six years later, the opposite has come true.
In an unprecedented moment in modern German history, the AfD now stands at the top of national opinion polls. Not only has Merz failed to stem the tide—he has helped swell it. The question is no longer why the AfD is growing, but why it has taken so long.
The Establishment Has Failed — And Everyone Knows It
The so-called “grand coalition” between Merz’s CDU and the crumbling SPD has only confirmed what many voters already knew: Germany’s old parties are bankrupt of ideas, principles, and courage. In a time of economic stagnation, record migration, a security crisis, and skyrocketing costs of living, Merz promised real change. Instead, he delivered a retreat.
His party, once the home of conservative values, has broken its own fiscal pledges to fuel another spending spree, empowered the SPD’s social agenda, and watered down the firm border policies that a majority of Germans demand. The CDU under Merz has become nothing more than a hollow echo of the Merkel years—centrist, compromised, and out of touch.
Voters are tired of politicians who say one thing and do another. They are tired of empty slogans about “democracy” and “responsibility” while their streets feel less safe, their bills more expensive, and their government less accountable. The AfD is rising not because it is radical, but because the times demand radical honesty.
A Movement Rooted in Reality
Since its founding in 2013, the AfD has refused to play by the rules of polite failure. While other parties mock, demonize, and attempt to censor it, the AfD has doubled down on principle: German sovereignty, secure borders, fiscal responsibility, and cultural self-confidence.
The party has built its strength not with media spin or backroom deals, but through consistency. It told the truth about the migration crisis. It predicted the economic consequences of the Greens’ utopian energy policies. It has called out the Eurozone’s dysfunction and the creeping federalism of Brussels. And now, more and more Germans are listening.
Even in the face of relentless attacks—media smears, legal challenges, surveillance threats—the AfD has only grown. Why? Because it speaks to a reality that millions of citizens experience every day but feel they are not allowed to say out loud.
The Price of Arrogance
Friedrich Merz and his allies still believe they can govern Germany with hollow centrism and half-measures. Their arrogance has cost them dearly. They assumed that AfD voters were just “protest voters” who would eventually come home. They were wrong. These voters are not coming home to the CDU because the CDU left them long ago.
If the CDU really cared about what’s best for Germany—about democracy, national cohesion, and the will of the people—it would stop treating the AfD like a political pariah and begin engaging it as a legitimate force. The taboo on cooperating with the AfD is undemocratic, divisive, and unsustainable.
The Future Is Ours
The establishment’s panic is not a sign of AfD extremism. It is a sign that their own grip on power is slipping. The rise of the AfD is not the beginning of some “dark chapter” in German history, as media elites like to claim—it is the reawakening of a people who are reclaiming their voice.
In East Germany, the AfD is on the cusp of majority rule. Across the nation, polls show a hunger for change that only one party is willing to deliver. The old order is collapsing under the weight of its own lies. And at long last, the AfD is ready to lead.
“Political change will come,” Alice Weidel declared—and she was right.
