There were calls to ban the party when it was reported party members were at a meeting of neo-Nazis where a “master plan” to expel millions of people from Germany was discussed, including asylum seekers, foreigners with residency rights and “unassimilated citizens”.
The AfD were shut out of coalition government by the “firewall”, an agreement by mainstream parties not to work with those deemed too extreme.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, criticised the firewall as anti-democratic.’ [0]
There is plenty more on the subject [1, 2, 3, 4].
> They just seem to be regular right wing by American standards.
This might be a comment on the state of American politics as much as it is on Germany’s.
[0] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/05/02/afd-classi...
[1] https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-jd-vance-is-wrong-about-afd...
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx88nwy934go
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/25/afd-readmits-t...
[4] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-02/german-spy-agency-lab...