Far-right sentiment is rising in Germany.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) set out its ambitions to close Germany’s borders, resume purchases of Russian gas and effectively dissolve the European Union at a meeting in the eastern Saxony town of Rissa on Saturday.

German media reported that the party’s agreed manifesto included plans to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, exit the euro and create a new coalition of countries.

Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel has even publicly embraced the term “re-immigration” – a term widely understood to mean the mass “return” or deportation of people with a migration background.

Thousands of anti-AfD protesters flooded the streets of Rizal on Saturday, trying to prevent people from entering the conference venue.

When Alice Wedel finally took to the stage, she described the activists outside as a “left-wing mob.”

And, in front of the chamber to the delight of delegates, there was talk of “mass deportations”.

“I have to be honest with you: If this is going to be called re-immigration, then it is: re-immigration,” she said.

It’s a far cry from a year ago, when she tried to distance herself from the scandal surrounding the controversial concept.

Senior party officials are said to have taken part in nationwide anti-choice protests at a meeting in which “immigration” issues were discussed with Martin Serna, an Austrian far-right activist with a neo-Nazi background. Party demonstrations.

Serna writes about “re-immigration” of asylum seekers, some foreigners with residency rights, and “unassimilated” citizens.

It’s a buzzword on Europe’s far right, with some claiming legal residents won’t be forced to leave. Critics say “re-immigration” is just a euphemism for a blatantly racist mass deportation plan.

But Alice Weidel’s decision to coin the term herself just weeks before the federal election shows her party’s growing activism and confidence.

She also promised to dismantle wind farms which she called “windmills of shame”, leave the EU’s asylum system and “evict” gender studies professors.

The Alternative for Germany consistently ranks second in German opinion polls and has made gains in recent regional elections in the east of the country, where the party is strongest.

However, it is highly unlikely that it will win power because other parties will not cooperate with the AfD.

Some elements of the Alternative for Germany party are classified as right-wing extremists by domestic intelligence services.

In 2024, Björn Höcke, a far-right figure from the Alternative for Germany party, was fined twice for using the Nazi storm trooper paramilitary phrase “Alles für Deutschland” (“All for Germany”).

He called it an “everyday sentence” and denied knowing its origins, despite being a former history teacher.

Reports emerged that members of a conference in Risa this weekend chanted “Alice for Germany,” prompting quick comparisons in the German media.

However, AfD figures often complain that they are demonized and persecuted by biased media and institutions.

Alice Wedel’s party – of which she is co-leader and now a candidate for prime minister – has weathered storm after storm and is currently hovering around 20 percent support in national polls, even More than 20%.

The 45-year-old economist, who once worked at Goldman Sachs and was in a same-sex relationship, has been working hard to polish the edges of her party.

But for those vehemently opposed to the Alternative for Germany, she is a fig leaf, or in the words of one social democrat, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Regardless, she’s enjoying her newfound spotlight after being thrust into the spotlight. Last week, tech billionaire Elon Musk invited him to speak live on his X Platformwho wholeheartedly supports the party.

Her assertion during this discussion that Adolf Hitler was actually a communist prompted condemnation, given the Nazi leader’s well-known anti-communism.

Critics warn of Nazi revisionism – something the Alternative for Germany has been accused of before.

Björn Höcke has called for a “180-degree turn” in Germany’s approach to its Nazi past, while former coalition leader Alexander Gauland described the Nazi era as “more than 1,000 years of German success” A speck of guano in history.”

Nonetheless, the AfD’s anti-establishment, anti-immigration and anti-“woke” agenda is finding adherents in Germany, who will go to the polls on February 23.