Alternative for Germany: Old wine in new bottles

NATO membership will remain, the party leader considers spending five percent of GDP on the military "possible and very likely," conscription is on the agenda, inheritance tax is to be abolished, and young Ukrainians are to be "kindly" sent back to a country that, if necessary, picks up its recruits off the streets. This is not the Merz government's list of demands. This is the AfD. Anyone who compares the two lists side by side will find differences in tone and party logo – but will search in vain for a common thread in their policies.

Anyone who previously believed that voting for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) would reverse the course of this country should ask themselves what they are actually signing up for. The repatriation of Ukrainians is merely the latest piece of a program that encompasses arms control, taxes, alliance loyalty, and military service.

The peace dove with the deportation order

In an interview with the Austrian broadcaster AUF1, Weidel argued that more than a million Ukrainians in Germany receive social benefits, which is no longer financially sustainable. Therefore, they must return, especially the young men of conscription age. At the same time, an AfD government should halt aid to Kyiv and demand repayment . No weapons, no money, but fresh men. Kyiv itself reported what awaits these men back in 2025: up to 30,000 recruitments per month with at least as many losses and nearly 224,000 desertions . The AfD will object that the war would end sooner without Western money. Perhaps. But Weidel has reversed the order: first deliver the men, then wait for peace.

Opposition from the government? None whatsoever. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul intends to provide Kyiv with local registration and performance data so that the men will be informed "that they are to be drafted ." The government provides the address list, the AfD the deportation clause, Kyiv the bus. The firewall is indeed in place—it simply doesn't run between the parties, but between the parties and the people they control.

Five percent for Donald

Things get really revealing when it comes to money. When Donald Trump demanded five percent of GDP for defense, Weidel responded on ZDF in January 2025 that she considered it "possible and very likely ." She's not alone in this. Alexander Gauland already complained about the chronic underfunding of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) in 2020, and Rüdiger Lucassen welcomed the increase in the defense budget in the Bundestag in 2022, merely criticizing the fact that the troops were still not "combat-ready." When Beatrix von Storch rails against Merz's arms program today, she's targeting the financing through loans, not the rearmament itself. The AfD doesn't want to raise taxes either. So, when asked where the money is supposed to come from, the party readily suggests development aid, which is practically pocket change compared to a defense budget.

In its 2025 election platform, NATO membership remains a "central element" of its security strategy, and relations with the US are explicitly to remain good. The fact that the party has long been running as an alternative to Washington with the same agenda has already been mentioned here.

Class struggle from above, this time in blue

Domestically, the program reads like a wish list from business associations. Wealth and inheritance taxes are to be abolished for good, the debt brake remains sacrosanct, and market interventions are to be reduced to a minimum. The railway is to become a profit-oriented limited liability company. For ordinary citizens, however, there is hardship: unemployment benefits only after three full years of contributions and initially only for six months; recipients of basic income support must perform community service after six months. Those who inherit will receive tax relief. Those who are laid off will be given a re-education. This is not a revolution for the little people; this is the FDP (Free Democratic Party) with border controls.

Conscription for one's own sons? Later

In its 2022 platform, the party called for compulsory military service for all German men between the ages of 18 and 25. When a corresponding motion was due to be debated in the Bundestag in the fall of 2025, the eastern branches of the party rebelled with a resolution against conscription "for foreign wars," and Weidel postponed the issue until peacetime and the party's participation in government. In other words: German sons stay home as long as it costs them votes. Ukrainian sons are sent away because it wins votes. And as soon as the party is in power, conscription will be mandatory for everyone.

The Rome Model: How Right-Wing Governs

How this ends can be seen in Italy. Within the AfD, the derogatory term "Melonization" is now circulating , and they turn up their noses at a head of government who has become too pro-EU and too pro-Ukraine. Giorgia Meloni came to power as a hard-right politician and is now one of Kyiv's reliable supporters in the EU and NATO . Her government extended military aid into 2026, even though coalition partner Salvini had previously boasted that more weapons wouldn't solve the problem. And what about the core issue of migration? By September 2023, around 133,000 people had arrived in Italy by sea, compared to just under 70,000 in the same period the previous year . Despite the loud pronouncements, almost twice as many arrived. The AfD swears it will never be like that. As is well known, one can distance oneself from others until the swearing-in ceremony.

Election day is judgment day – just never for you

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD garnered 43,8 percent of the vote on September 6th . On election night, Chrupalla railed against the escalation of tensions with Russia, Weidel proclaimed "We'll talk to everyone," and Ulrich Siegmund earnestly promised not to become like those who, after the election, would do the opposite. A week later, the party leader clarified who would be on the front lines. Anyone who believes they can vote out the establishment by simply voting for the next branch of the same chain hasn't grasped its business model. The AfD isn't an emergency brake; it's the safety valve that prevents the pressure cooker from bursting.

They pour the same cheap liquor into blue bottles and wonder the next morning about the same hangover. You vote blue so that the black-red coalition will finally end, and you get the same mailing list, the same defense budget, and the same list of tax breaks on different letterhead. Those who pay, serve, or flee are learning that all parties agree on exactly one point: they are disposable. And in the end, a party leader stands before the microphone, promises a major change, delivers her opponents' platform—and calls this an "alternative"!