Asked whether she would include the word "voelkisch," Petry responded that she doesn't use the term herself but dislikes the fact that it is only used negatively. "Her statement that one should work on giving the term 'voelkisch' a positive meaning is disgusting," daily Neue Westfaelische wrote in an editorial. Along the way, AfD has tried to portray itself as the only true defender of the German "Volk." Nationalist sentiment didn't evaporate with Germany's unification in 1871 but rather grew into a myth of German uniqueness in the world. Heidrun Kaemper, a linguist at the Institute of German Language, noted that AfD's rhetoric is imbued with notions of "us" and "them."

Source: New York Times September 12, 2016 12:42 UTC