The Far Right in Germany Wants to Soften Its Image, Not Its Policies | The Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has adopted a code of conduct for its members, without changing its positions on immigration and other issues.

From a new poll:

>Given the huge surge in support for the AfD over the last few years, one would expect its supporters to have moved closer to the supporters of the other parties, where many of them had their political home just two or three years ago. This is not the case – and that is remarkable. AfD supporters differ significantly from the supporters of all other parties. This is least true when it comes to the urgency attributed to controlling and limiting migration and the importance of internal security, i.e. precisely the goals that particularly characterise the AfD’s profile. It is much more fundamental: trust in institutions, the political and economic system, attitudes towards the European Union, integration into the Western defence alliance and confidence in the solubility of problems.
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>Unlike the majority of the population, the majority of AfD supporters have no confidence that the challenges facing Germany will be overcome. 69 percent are dissatisfied with the country’s democratic system, and only a minority consider the social market economy to be a convincing system. The majority of the population is convinced that the future should not be shaped unilaterally at the national level, but rather within the European Union, but only 17 percent of AfD supporters share this view; they are the only ones who believe that EU membership brings more disadvantages than advantages, a view shared by only 19 percent of the population.
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>Unlike the majority of the population, AfD supporters do not see Europe as a community of values. Their attitude towards NATO is predominantly critical, their attitude towards Russia is much more positive than that of the rest of the population, and their willingness to support Ukraine is correspondingly low.
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>The positions of supporters of no other party come close to this spectrum of opinion; the closest overlap is with the shrinking BSW support base. Supporters of the Left Party are completely different and much closer to the centrist parties than AfD supporters. This applies to trust in institutions and the system, support for the European path, confidence in the solubility of problems, and the importance attached to social justice and a strong welfare state, but less so to strengthening defence capabilities.

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/allensbach-umfrage-mehrheit-lehnt-afd-verbot-ab-110597565.html (without paywall: https://www.msn.com/de-de/nachrichten/politik/allensbach-umfrage-mehrheit-lehnt-afd-verbot-ab/ar-AA1ITcgd)

*Translated with DeepL.com (free version)*

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