Alternative for Germany has joined France’s National Rally and Reform U.K. in becoming the most popular party in its country, according to polls.

A poll Tuesday showed Alternative for Germany — which is under surveillance by the country’s intelligence services over suspected extremism — is now the most favored by voters. The survey by broadcaster RTL put the AfD at 26%, ahead of the ruling Christian Democrats at 24%.

This is a high watermark for the European far right, a once fringe movement whose virulently anti-immigration, anti-Islam and culture-war politics were shunned by the mainstream just a decade ago.

Today, these parties have developed deep ties with President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, who openly cite nationalists such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as inspirations on policy and tactics.

  • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Democracy has always been the beard for Fascism since the creation of the US. It was a good lie to sell the people while the wealthy did whatever the fuck they want. Once you come to realize this everything makes sense and falls into place.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      That may be true for the US, but we’re talking about Europe here, where many countries have a welfare state, workers’ rights exist, and education is handled very differently. That’s precisely why I find it even more incomprehensible how people can be so incredibly stupid and vote for Nazis who are not only inhuman racists, but also want to create US-style conditions in Europe.

      • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        If Europe is such a great representation of idealism why are they marching lockstep to the right?

        The truth is the wealthy, because of concentration of capital, have a disproportionate amount of representation. The wealth gap continues to get worse in all of Europe. This is not a coincidence!

        The US doesn’t need to impose their shitty conditions on Europe because they are doing it to themselves. It is a race to the bottom and the wealthy are laughing the whole way.

        • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          What else can I say? Every thinking person is aware of the problem, but you’re not going to achieve anything with your propaganda slogans – on the contrary, you’re scaring off people who basically agree with you.

          • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            The truth is fucking terrifying and you have a lot of propaganda running around in your head like everyone, including me. This propaganda creates cognitive dissonance.

            Every thinking person is not aware of this or even close. I studied communications with an emphasis on propaganda and persuasion. I learned a lot of disturbing things about humanity.

            While we may agree on a few points I highly doubt you believe what I do. Perhaps you are right though, stranger things have happened.

      • Jason2357@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        The actual Nazis didn’t really drop in popularity much, or rather their policies didn’t, even after those very policies resulted in much of the continent being burned down. People literally looked around at the rubble and hoped that fascists would fix things. In Italy, they stayed in power ffs.

        You need strong constitutions to protect from this shit, because people will vote for their own death when they are scared.

        • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          You need strong constitutions to protect from this shit, because people will vote for their own death when they are scared.

          Constitutions without a mechanism of enforcement are just a piece of paper. Much of what is occurring in the United States right now is absurdly unconstitutional, but it doesn’t matter because the institutions – that are full of living, breathing humans – all ignore it.

      • chunes@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Please. Europe is a dozen times less stable than the US. You guys can’t stop from blowing each other up every 30 years.

    • compostgoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      If you add the words “liberal, capitalist” in front of democracy, I agree with you. But I believe that democracy as a whole is a worthy ideal worth striving towards, in all areas of public life.