Dear friends and comrades,

I live in northeastern Germany, and this year extreme heat and drought caused us to lose several bodies of water where we usually swam and fished in the summer. Entire forests—especially coniferous forests—where we used to hike and forage for mushrooms withered away completely within a few weeks in June and July, and wild fruit trees in the countryside have dried up.

What has become apparent this year has, in reality, been developing for many years: the groundwater table has dropped so low that there is no longer any connection to the surface. Water simply seeps away into the soil below. Six hours after a rain, the ground looks just as parched as before—not a single drop remains. In a sense, a feeling of dread is spreading, but also one of helplessness. And for many, quite simply: ignorance. Farmers and fishermen are often (by no means always!) conservative. They consider human-caused climate change to be nonsense. And so it’s strange these days to observe their behavior: on the one hand, they are undeniably faced with dry ponds and fields, yet on the other hand, they still refuse to accept this reality!

I notice this in myself as well: one gets used to the idea that nature will simply be different in the future, and that this future has already begun.

The same applies to the political situation. I can only express my own thoughts and feelings here. Personally, I believe that the current rise of the far-right AfD cannot really be prevented. One conceivable scenario would be that, after the next federal election in 2029, the AfD would govern in coalition with the CDU for four years and then on its own. Since the AfD stands significantly to the right of similar parties in Europe—such as those in France, Italy, or the Netherlands—I consider it likely that it will draw heavily on the current U.S. administration and, for example, establish structures similar to ICE.

As a socialist transgender person, this situation could, of course, become very dangerous for me—it could even cost me my life. While 20 years ago I would have said that if there were ever even the slightest prospect of a fascist dictatorship, I would leave the country immediately, that’s exactly what I’m not doing now! Quite apart from the fact that hardly any country would want me and I wouldn’t even have the money for the flight, these thoughts also concern me: Who knows if it will really get that bad? Through cooperation among all the other parties, we could certainly delay the AfD’s rise to power by another four years, but I completely reject such thought experiments. First, such a coalition would hardly be capable of governing; second, it would mean suddenly supporting the very parties that we on the left have been fighting with all our might for decades. For the same reasons, I also reject so-called “strategic voting.”

So how extreme will AfD rule really be? I think that also depends on whether this party can govern more or less unimpeded, or whether there is a strong anti-fascist counter-movement from the very beginning that—even at great personal sacrifice—makes governing considerably more difficult while drawing as large a segment of the population as possible to its side. For this to happen, however, it is absolutely essential that this movement be not only anti-fascist but also radically anti-capitalist!

We thank this comrade for their report and add the following:

2013 – Respect for Russian territorial claims and zone of influence

Alexander Gauland enunciates the […] AfD’s position on foreign relations with Russia in their ” Positionspapier für Außenpolitisches”. In it he cautions Germany to be “respectful” of Russian interests in Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia, and says that […] Russia’s “claims to Crimea should be seen in the same light as we yearned for the Saarland in 1950”.

2014 – Declaring Eurasian leadership

Jürgen Elsasser […] declares Putin the “natural leader of a new Eurasian assocation of free peoples from Lisbon to Vladivostock” […]. He declares his support for the Russian invasion of Crimea and the “liberation of the Donbas” and insists that any opposition to Russian “intervention” in Ukraine is “built on Russophobia”. A month later […] he decries the Maidan movement […] as a “NATO Coup”.

2017 – Legitimizing the Crimea “referendum”

Waldemar Herdt, Kazakh born AfD member with dual Russian/German nationality denies before the Bundestag that Crimea is “occupied” by Russia and declares the referendum* held to be “perfectly legitimate”.

2018 – Kremlin-paid election observers in Crimea

Eight AfD members (including Herdt) tour Crimea during the Russian Presidential elections as “unofficial election observers” and report back how “fair and secure they are”. An investigation later uncovers all 8 are in payment of monies direct from the Kremlin, contrary to German transparency regulations.

2019 – Opposing sanctions and Western involvement

Gauland tells Russian Newspaper “Komsomolakaya Pravda” that the AfD “strongly opposes any Western Involvement in matters within or between Ukraine or Russia”, that “the war in the Donbas” is a “civil war inside Ukraine”, and that his party “100% opposes sanctions against any Russian person, party, or organisation arising from the 2014 referendum results in Crimea”.

2020 – The Nord Stream 2 resolution

After meeting with Gazprom directors in Moscow, the AfD initiates a Bundestag resolution to finish the construction of Nord Stream 2. It is defeated 556-83. One of the three principal authors of the resolution […] Tito Chrupulla […] in 2018 gave a speech at the Russian Ministry of Defence wherein he decried the Allied Policy of “National Reeducation” after World War 2, accused it of stripping Germany of “national pride”.

2022 – Moscow conference on anti-sanctions