80: The Rise of the AfD and the Threat to German Democracy. Judy Dempsey discusses the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, noting it is infiltrating German culture, education, and town halls, predominantly in the East. She warns that th

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The Rise of the AfD and the Threat to German Democracy. Judy Dempsey discusses the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, noting it is infiltrating German culture, education, and town halls, predominantly in the East. She warns that the AfD poses a danger to German democracy and the rule of law. The future hinges on whether established parties can isolate the AfD or if the Constitutional Court will intervene to outlaw the party. Dempsey also notes that the BBC scandal involves the highly scrutinized domestic service, distinct from the generally "exemplary" BBC World Service.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm John Batchew with my colleague Judy Dempsey in Berlin for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
0:07.5	Judy tells me it's a birthday, so happy birthday chancellor.
0:11.8	Friedrich Merritt is the Chancellor of all the Germans, which means that he
0:15.5	conducts his business and before the Bundestag.
0:19.6	The Bundestag, the parliament, the legislature,
0:22.4	the Congress, is dominated by a new party called AFD that has great expectations of becoming
0:29.5	the authority in the next German election. This is happy birthday Herr Merritt's, but at the same time
0:36.8	the struggles with AFD are not obvious from the outside.
0:41.1	Judy, you tell me that the AFD is spreading its wings and moving through the culture.
0:47.0	How so?
0:48.7	It's moving through the culture in education, going into schools, high schools, and even in the kindergartens and looking at
0:59.6	the curriculum, and they're infiltrating and trying to influence not only in eastern German
1:05.2	states, but in Western Germany as well. The AFD is really, really trying to become an influencer.
1:13.3	And this is an, it should be a much, much bigger debate.
1:17.4	And the German president, Frank Walter Steinmeier, gave a big speech on the 9th of November,
1:22.8	which commemorates a Kristallnacht when a lot of the Jewish stores were attacked and so many in 1939.
1:32.4	But not only that, it also celebrates the unification of Germany.
1:37.2	And he really spelled out how democracy was actually in danger.
1:43.0	And the established parties must not make any concessions
1:48.6	to the AFD.
1:49.9	And we are coming to a very close breaking point about who's going to give in first.
1:56.1	Are we going to actually bring in the IFD and get and break down this kind of firewall with them or just isolate them
	...

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