Alternativ für Deutschland tipped to make big gains in fall elections

On the theory that one good picture of a right-handed salute (see yesterday's post about the Greek elections) deserves another, here's a photo of Björn Höcke, a rising star in the Alternativ für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) party.

The AfD has been described as a right-wing party. [That's right! Ed.] Herr Höcke is the leader of a faction which is shifting the policies of the party even further to the right, to a position which the German state broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, describes as "hard nationalist". This division was manifest this weekend in an AfD conference in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, an AfD stronghold, which ended abruptly with the resignation of nine of the party's twelve board members.

The resignation left the state party under the control of deputy chairman Thomas Röckemann, a supporter of the Björn Höcke wing. Herr Höcke used his speech at the annual "Kyffhäuser" meeting to deny that immigrants had ever been economically beneficial to Germany. He told supporters that "the policy of open borders practiced for decades, ever since 1955, this irrational migration policy for which the old parties are responsible, has bled us financially, as if we had lost another war."

Elsewhere in the Fatherland, three eastern states -- Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia -- are due to elect new parliaments in the fall. The AfD is currently polling in first or second place in all three states. Should be interesting!

Footnote: The part of the poster partially visible behind Herr Höcke in the photo reads (translated) "Our culture!" Sounds a lot like "Ein volk!", doesn't it.

Further reading: "One-worlders quake with fear as nationalists win elections everywhere", WWW 21/5/19.