The Rise of German Nationalism Exposes Washington’s Delusions

The recent electoral surge of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which secured 20.8 percent in February's snap election and won state elections in Thuringia last year, has predictably triggered alarm bells throughout Washington's foreign policy establishment. The usual suspects are warning of a new Nazi threat, the collapse of the transatlantic alliance, and the end of Western civilization as we know it. But beneath the hyperbole lies a more complex reality that American policymakers would be wise to understand rather than reflexively condemn.

Let’s be clear about what's happening. The AfD’s rise is not some inexplicable resurgence of fascism but rather a predictable political backlash against decades of failed policies—economic stagnation in eastern Germany, botched immigration policies, and Berlin’s costly entanglement in the Ukraine conflict. When the mainstream parties offered voters more of the same, voters looked elsewhere.

Washington’s foreign policy blob has responded with its standard playbook: demonize, isolate, and lecture. Yet this approach fundamentally misunderstands both German politics and American interests. The same establishment that assured us NATO expansion posed no threat to Russia, that the Iraq War would be a cakewalk, and that Afghanistan could be turned into a democracy now wants us to believe that AfD supporters are crypto-Nazis rather than ordinary Germans fed up with bearing the costs of extreme liberalism and America's geopolitical adventures.

The AfD’s supposedly pro-Russian stance has become the primary focus of establishment anxiety, and here the panic reaches its crescendo. The party opposes sanctions on Russia, calls for an end to weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and advocates diplomatic engagement with Moscow. To the Beltway consensus, this represents treachery. To realists, it represents Germans acting in their perceived national interest.

Germany imports its energy, and Russian gas was both cheap and reliable until Washington pushed for a confrontation that Germans never asked for. The AfD's opposition to the Ukraine war is not driven by admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin—though some members certainly harbor such views—but by a cold calculation that bleeding Russia white in Ukraine is not worth Germany's economic security. Right or wrong, this is a legitimate policy position, not evidence of Kremlin control.