ORANIENBURG, Germany — Mario, 44, thinks Germany is changing too much.
He worries it’s no longer safe to bike down some streets. He thinks the students at his kids’ school speak too many languages that aren’t German. And he resents that newcomers seem to be getting benefits that longtime residents don’t.
For Mario, there’s one culprit he sees at the root of these concerns, and it’s the influx of immigration the country has experienced in the last few years. Like the US, Germany has seen a recent uptick in immigration — 2022 and 2023 saw a high number of migrants entering the European country — due to growing global displacement, the war in Ukraine, and ongoing instability in northern Africa and the Middle East. Also like in the US, that surge in immigration has been weaponized by the far right in order to achieve their own political gains.
In Germany, one party in particular is capitalizing on it: the Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD.
“Heimat,” Mario said, using a term which roughly means “home” in German, when asked his reason for supporting the party. “It’s just not nice anymore. It can get better, quite simply, through less migration.”
AfD’s support in national polls, as well as its success in regional elections, has been alarming for many Germans ahead of pivotal state elections taking place this year, when the party could make serious gains. Three major races are occurring in eastern Germany, where AfD has some of its firmest strongholds, and where it could feasibly achieve what it hasn’t anywhere else: becoming a legitimate governing partner for other parties.
“I simply cannot comprehend it. I can’t understand…
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