OXON HILL, Md.—Christine Anderson, a member of the European Parliament from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said she expects her right-leaning group to finish well in the Feb. 23 German federal elections.
Yet, she had an important caveat.
“AfD will come in a strong second but they will not even speak to us,” she said of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the center-right party expected to win the most votes.
“That leaves them with only being able to form a government with The Left and The Green, so there isn’t going to be any change,” she said, referring to the two other major political parties in Germany’s parliamentary system.
Anderson spoke to The Epoch Times at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Feb. 22—a day ahead of Germany’s elections.
A recent YouGov survey showed AfD taking roughly 20 percent of the vote and 145 of 733 seats in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. That would be double the votes than in the previous election when they netted 10.4 percent. As recently as 2013, AfD obtained less than 5 percent of the vote, falling short of the threshold to gain seats in the Bundestag.
Germany’s current leader, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party, has served as chancellor since 2021. Pollster YouGov predicts the Social Democrats will win just 16 percent of the vote—a possible low point for the party since the end of World War II.
Mass migration, a faltering economy, and anger at the foreign policy status quo are among the factors behind the rise of the AfD and similar parties across Europe. Like many of those other parties, the AfD has struggled to form governing coalitions with other factions.
In France, the National Rally is not part of the current government, led by Prime Minister François Bayrou, despite now being the largest contingent in the National Assembly. The Freedom Party of Austria has similarly struggled to form a governing coalition with other parties.
The AfD has also gained a boost, and greater international attention, thanks to technologist Elon Musk, who has promoted the party on social media platform X with his 218 million followers.
Anderson questioned the impact of the likely outcome for the AfD on Feb. 23.
“If elections won’t effect change anymore, do we even still live in a democracy?” she asked.
She questioned whether the CDU could present itself as a force for change relative to the Social Democrats, given how long they previously held power. Chancellor Angela Merkel, of the CDU, served from 2005 to 2021, a period marked by large-scale immigration from the Middle East, sweeping emissions targets, and other policies that helped propel the AfD to prominence.
In some areas, Anderson told The Epoch Times, CDU politicians “don’t sound all that different from what we want.”
But there are important points of divergence, she said. The most significant points of contention are immigration and Germany’s relationship with Russia amid the Ukraine war, now a subject of bilateral talks between the Trump administration and Russian officials.
In his Feb. 22 appearance at CPAC, President Donald Trump reiterated his call for Russia–Ukraine war to end and discussed his negotiations with Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, as well as his negotiations with Ukraine, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up,” he said of his demands to Ukraine. “We’re asking for rare earth and oil—anything we can get.”
Anderson said that while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “a no-go,” the conflict could be traced back to the Maidan Revolution of 2014, which included the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych, as well as prior talk of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. The country, at that time led by Yanukovych, withdrew from an association agreement with the EU in late 2013.
“The EU will not take no for an answer,” she said.
Anderson also condemned the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany, which came several months into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
While Russia pinned blame on the United States and Great Britain, neither party have taken responsibility for the act. Ukrainian officials have disputed August 2024 reporting in the Wall Street Journal that pinned the blame on a small group of Ukrainians.
In September 2024, almost two years after the incident, Scholz told German media that an investigation of the incident was underway.
Russia in January accused the United States of having sought to sabotage an energy pipeline between Turkey and Russia.
While she did not weigh in on the party responsible, Anderson described the 2022 Nord Stream sabotage as an “act of war” against Germany.
