Alternative for Germany (AfD) is a right-wing populist political party in Germany which was founded by Alexander Gauland on 6 February 2013. It was founded by a group of economists, journalists, and business leaders who were opposed to the European Union, and it became the third-largest party in the Bundestag at the 2017 elections.
In its early years, the AfD presented itself as an economic liberal, Eurosceptic, and conservative alternative to the center-right and pro-European CDU, but, after 2015, it experienced a shift to the far-right through its increasing opposition to immigration, Islam, and the European Union. The party was opposed to Germany's post-World War II "culture of shame", sought to reclaim the term volkisch from its Nazi connotations (Bjorn Hocke spoke of the "fatherland" and volk with a strong ethnic/racial connotation, and also criticized the Holocaust memorial in Berlin), opposed the presence and accommodation of immigrants and refugees in Germany (especially Muslims, whom the AfD feared would change German culture), opposed same-sex marriage in favor of civil unions, opposed feminism, opposed renewable energy, supported a reinstatement of conscription for 18-year-old men, supported NATO, the United States, and Zionism (with some factions also supporting Russia), and supported far-right groups such as Pegida. Factions of the AfD were openly racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, or even neo-Nazi.
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