Firewalls and regional equivalents to it have recently come under heavy strain as nationalist far-right parties have found themselves relative electoral success in the past two years in Central and Western Europe. As it is used in the non-technological setting, the firewall refers to the unofficial agreement amongst the majority of Germany’s parties to continuously refuse to work alongside or form a coalition with far-right parties. In recent years, the Brandmauer (firewall) has been implemented against the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) which campaigns on an extremist anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim platform since its establishment in 2013. While mainstream German parties have for the most part maintained this pact against the AfD, a recent parliamentary motion and election has exposed significant cracks in this firewall. Such symptoms of the gradual erosion against cooperation with extremism have detrimental implications that are exemplified by an inseparable historical legacy that remains at the very heart of this issue.

Since the reunification of Germany over 30 years ago, the federal republic has yet to see the far-right in the government aside from being relegated to an oppositional position to centrist coalition. The far-right has relatively had little to no success in Germany where parties linked to neo-Nazi ideologies have had immense public disapproval. However, the rise of the AfD in the past decade has enjoyed generous support from young voters, especially in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony. The recent collapse of the minority-SDP (Social Democratic Party) led government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz paired with growing anti-immigrant sentiment has resulted in increasing success of the populist right-wing party. Following the regional success of rightward surge, the AfD amassed the second largest share of votes in February’s parliamentary election. With the largest vote percentage for the far-right since the end of the Second World War, such a figure has prompted discussions of the vitality of Germany’s firewall.

The origins of this recent drift from Germany’s centrist political tendencies lies in the way the public perceives the relative success and failures of its mainstream parties. Since the establishment of Germany in its modern post-WW2 form, two parties have consistently remained the most popular in elections, this being the centre-left SDP and the centre-right CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union). Complimentary of AfD’s gradual popularity has been a growing dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs with Germany’s political system. While the two parties have differed in their own ways, many have begun to reject what is viewed as a centrist coalition incapable of mitigating or addressing economic issues and migration in which the latter has become a sensationalized matter of concern. Although Germany indeed remains a multiparty system unlike the U.S., its immunity against populist demagoguery is not a guarantee. 

In Jan-Werner Müller’s What is Populism?, methodologies of populist movements are investigated and found to be largely dependent on two defining qualities: anti-elitism and anti-pluralism. In the case of Germany, such theories of populism are certainly evident in the steady decline of a democratic center in favor of an emboldened alternative who define themselves as the sole party who can bring about real solutions. The aversion to the elite does not necessarily equate to an aversion towards those of exuberant wealth, rather it is an aversion towards liberal elites who are believed to be working actively against the interests of the common man. Fueled by visions of nationalism, voters are directed to turn their grievances towards those that are seen as antithetical to the national vision as defined by populist pundits. Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD since 2022, has capitalized on such strategies to ignite passionate fears of foreigners who seek the upheaval of German society. Additionally, the centrist boycott of far-right parties as well as its heavy emphasis on atoning for its infamous history under Hitler is viewed itself as a denigration of democratic values by populist billionaire Elon Musk and even U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance.

Disparaging what is seen as an ineffective liberal elite, populist fervor still requires the element of anti-pluralism whereas true political legitimacy rests upon their shoulders and no one else. Such an approach towards opposing political figures is largely distinct from mere policy disagreements as populists see their voice as synonymous with the voice of people where conversely those who disagree can in no way be representative irregardless of electoral results. The AfD in an effort to amass the support it maintains today has applied such anti-pluralist principles as even the centre-right are seen illegitimate and incapable of producing results, whereas they are the only viable alternative to restoring Germany back to some perceived former glory. The actions done then by centrist parties are not viewed and scrutinized at the policy level, rather potential motives are conjured and are attributed to the identified elites as evidence for their theories of illegitimate governance. Such a demand then towards a party rather dismissive of minority rights and democratic institutions then presents foreboding predictions, especially for a nation where such populist trends brought about its fascistic devolution less than 100 years ago.

In the past few days, a coalition in Germany has been formed absent the AfD led by the CDU’s Friedrich Merz who is seen to be Scholz’s successor as Chancellor of Germany. Despite this apparent impediment of AfD’s ambitions, a broader view has seen the increasing close calls of a far-right resurgence in the heart of Europe including France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Austria. Populist hypernationalism in unison with an immense disdain towards national ‘outsiders’ has largely defined these movements that depend on such passionate disapproval of an incompetent center. With the nations of Poland and Romania having their own elections coming up, populism becomes an inescapable theme that has tested the attachment to democracy over the achievement of electoral hegemony by antidemocratic means.