Trump-style Politics: How Germany’s Far Right Plans to Seize Power

8th July 2025

3 minutes read

Trump-style Politics: How Germany's Far Right Plans to Seize Power

Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has a straightforward plan to gain power: exploit the far left to deepen partisan divides.

According to the American magazine Politico, the strategy appears directly inspired by Donald Trump’s successful electoral tactics in the United States.

How the Far Right is Exploiting Artificial Intelligence in Germany’s Elections
The British Far Right Uses These Methods to Brainwash Children as Young as 9 Years Old

In an internal party document, the AfD states: “Our goal is to create a situation where the political divide is no longer between AfD and the rest of the spectrum, but rather between a conservative bourgeois camp and a radical leftist camp — similar to the current dynamic in the U.S.”

The aim is to provoke a political standoff between two irreconcilable blocs.

AfD is currently the largest opposition party in the Bundestag, having achieved its best result to date by coming in second in the February parliamentary elections.

The “firewall”

Despite growing popularity, the AfD remains excluded from real power. All other parliamentary blocs — including the conservatives led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz — refuse to govern alongside the far-right party. This unified stance, known as the firewall or cordon sanitaire, dates back to the post–World War II era.

AfD’s urgent political priority is to dismantle this firewall — to shed its pariah status and convince conservative leaders and voters that AfD politicians should no longer be barred from holding government positions.

To lead this charge, the party has tasked senior MP Beatrix von Storch with crafting a strategy to break the firewall and chart a path toward entering government via a coalition with the conservatives.

Unsurprisingly, the plan draws heavily on American models. AfD politicians praised U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech in Munich earlier this year, where he described the firewall as “undemocratic.”

Von Storch has maintained close ties with Trump allies. She and her husband attended Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration and met with Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidant and leading MAGA strategist.

Her strategy mimics Trump’s tactics: portray center-left opponents as “radical left-wing lunatics.” The AfD seeks to weaponize the recent rise of the far-left party in Germany to weaken the center-left, fragment its support base, and push it toward more extreme positions.

Such a scenario would make centrist governing coalitions more difficult to sustain — leaving conservatives with fewer viable options, and ultimately forcing them to view the AfD as a necessary ally, thereby breaching the firewall.

Winning new voters

While the firewall still stands, albeit weakened, AfD intends to make it increasingly politically costly for Merz and other conservatives to uphold it.

According to the strategy document, AfD plans to put forward popular policy proposals likely to resonate with disillusioned center-right voters — especially those unhappy with Merz’s coalition with the Social Democrats.

The goal is not necessarily to convert all of them but to erode public support for the firewall within this demographic, pressuring conservative leaders to reconsider their refusal to work with AfD.

Meanwhile, the party also plans to expand its voter base in areas where it remains weak — notably among women, senior citizens, and urban dwellers.