German Far-Right AfD Is in Parliament. Now What?

Alternative for Germany emerged as the third-strongest political force in the country’s national election in September. The anti-immigration, anti-Islam party’s entry into the Bundestag showed that Europe’s biggest economy isn’t immune to the populism that has shaped policies in neighboring European Union countries. Attention has since shifted away from the AfD as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to build her fourth-term coalition took center stage since October. After lawmakers return to Berlin on Nov. 20 for their fall session, giving the new opposition party its biggest political platform yet, this may change.

It won 12.6 percent of the votes in the Sept. 24 election, which translates into 94 of the 709 seats for the first far-right party in the Bundestag since immediately after World War II. Following the election, AfD co-leader Frauke Petry, who had won one of the seats, quit the party, calling it too radical to appeal to broad swaths of the population. She took one other defector with her. That leaves the AfD with 92 lawmakers in the national parliament. It’s also represented in 14 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments.