Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog [7],
The German political party known as the AfD, or “Alternative for Germany,” first came to my attention a year ago. Upon reading about it, I became so interested in this new party (it has only been around since early 2013) that I composed a post titled: Anti-Euro Party in Germany Makes Significant Headway into Parliamentary Elections [8]. Here’s an excerpt:
German parliamentary elections are coming up on Sept. 22, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has a problem on her hands. A euro-skeptical political party known as AfD is rising in the polls and could deny her Christian Democratic Union and its coalition partners the majority they need to continue governing.
AfD, or Alternative for Germany, currently holds no seats in the Bundestag, and until recently it barely registered in public-opinion polls. But a survey released on Sept. 4 by the Forsa polling group showed it with 4 per cent support—just shy of the 5 per cent needed to win Bundestag representation.Peter Matuschek, Forsa’s chief political analyst, says the poll may have underestimated the party’s strength. Many supporters, he told Spiegel [9], “are too embarrassed to admit that they are planning to vote for the AfD,” which wants Greece, Spain, and other crisis-hit countries to leave the euro zone, and possibly break up the existing monetary union itself.
That was then, this is now. From Ambrose-Evans Pritchard at the UK Telegraph [10]:
Standard & Poor’s has issued an extraordinary credit alert on the eurozone, one that deserves close attention.
It warns that the rise of Germany’s AfD anti-euro party calls into question the euro bail-out machinery and queries the pitch for any form of QE, stimulus that has already been pocketed and spent in advance by the markets.
It will force Angela Merkel to take a tougher line on Europe, and further complicates the management of the (already dysfunctional) currency bloc.
The rating agency said it will henceforth monitor any sign that Germany is digging in its heels on EMU matters as it seeks to head off this rising political threat. The report is written by Moritz Kraemer, head of sovereign ratings in Europe. He is German. This is not an Anglo-Saxon analysis.
Alternative für Deutschland is blowing across Germany like a tornado. The party won 12.6pc in Brandenburg and 10.6pc in Thuringia a week ago, following its success in Saxony. It has now broken into three regional parliaments. The free market FDP is being systematically destroyed. Now AfD is ripping into the Left-wing base of Die Linke as well.
Let’s not forget the huge “End the Fed” rallies [11] happening in Germany.
Looks like things are heating up in Deutschland.
