On the second day of a congress to firm up its strategy ahead of Germany’s election on September 26, the anti-Islam, anti-immigration party voted to call for a complete ban on refugees being joined by family members. Some AfD members have courted controversy by joining anti-vaxxers and “Querdenker” (Lateral Thinkers) at various demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions. AfD co-leader Jörg Meuthen on Saturday vowed to dispel “these orgies of bans, these jailings, this mania for locking down”. With Merkel and state leaders expected to tighten infection control measures further this week, the far right unveiled its election slogan of“Germany. The party caused a sensation in Germany’s last election in 2017 when it secured almost 13 percent of the vote, entering parliament for the first time as the largest opposition party.

Source: The Local April 11, 2021 12:11 UTC