^A: Although beginning as a centre-right alternative to the CDU/CSU, the AfD has been considered to be part of the radical right, a subset of the far right that does not oppose democracy, since 2015.[3]
Several state associations and other factions of AfD have been linked to or accused of harboring connections with far-right nationalist and proscribed movements, such as PEGIDA, the Neue Rechte, and the Identitarian movement,[37] and of employing historical revisionism,[38] as well as xenophobic rhetoric.[39][40][41] They have been observed by various state offices for the protection of the constitution since 2018.[42] AfD's leadership has denied that the party is racist and has been internally divided on whether to endorse such groups.[43] In January 2022, party leader Jörg Meuthen resigned his party chairmanship with immediate effect and left the AfD, as he came to acknowledge that the party had developed very far to the right with totalitarian traits and in large parts was no longer based on the liberal democratic basic order.[10][11]
The party is the strongest in the areas of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), especially the states of Saxony and Thuringia, largely due to economic and integration issues that still continue to persist post-reunification,[44][45][46] in addition to the East German voters' perceived propensity for strongman rule.[47] In the 2021 federal elections, AfD fell from third to fifth place overall but made gains in the eastern states (the former East Germany).[12] In the former East Berlin it came in second after SPD with 20.5% of the vote, while in the west it came in fifth with 8.4% of the vote.
Heinze, Anna-Sophie (1 March 2021). "Zum schwierigen Umgang mit der AfD in den Parlamenten: Arbeitsweise, Reaktionen, Effekte". Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft (in German). 31 (1): 133–150. doi:10.1007/s41358-020-00245-0. ISSN2366-2638. Der 2013 gegründeten 'Alternative für Deutschland' (AfD) gelang es – anders als früheren Rechtsaußenparteien wie der NPD, DVU oder den Republikanern ... [English: The 'Alternative for Germany' (AfD) party founded in 2013 succeeded – unlike earlier far-right parties such as the NPD, DVU or the Republicans ...
Lux, Thomas (June 2018). "Die AfD und die unteren Statuslagen. Eine Forschungsnotiz zu Holger Lengfelds Studie Die "Alternative für Deutschland": eine Partei für Modernisierungsverlierer?". KZFSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. 70 (2): 255–273. doi:10.1007/s11577-018-0521-2. S2CID149934029.
Schmitt-Beck, Rüdiger (2 January 2017). "The 'Alternative für Deutschland in the Electorate': Between Single-Issue and Right-Wing Populist Party". German Politics. 26 (1): 124–148. doi:10.1080/09644008.2016.1184650. S2CID156431715.
^Nordsieck, Wolfram (September 2021). "Germany". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
^Arzheimer, Kai; Berning, Carl C. (2019). "How the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and their voters veered to the radical right, 2013–2017". Electoral Studies. 60: 102040. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2019.04.004. S2CID181403226.
^ abPittelkow, Sebastian; Riedel, Katja; Schmidt, Martin (28 January 2022). "Meuthen verlässt die AfD". Tagesschau (in German). Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
^Schmitt-Beck, Rüdiger (2 January 2017). "The 'Alternative für Deutschland in the Electorate': Between Single-Issue and Right-Wing Populist Party". German Politics. 26 (1): 124–148. doi:10.1080/09644008.2016.1184650. S2CID156431715.
^Simon Franzmann (2015). "The Failed Struggle for Office Instead of Votes". In Gabriele D'Ottavio; Thomas Saalfeld (eds.). Germany After the 2013 Elections: Breaking the Mould of Post-Unification Politics?. Ashgate. pp. 166–167. ISBN978-1-4724-4439-4. Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
^Hans-Georg Betz; Fabian Habersack (2020). "Regional Nativism in East Germany: the case of the AfD". In Reinhard Heinisch; Emanuele Massetti; Oscar Mazzoleni (eds.). The People and the Nation: Populism and Ethno-Territorial Politics in Europe. Taylor & Francis. pp. 115–116. ISBN978-1-351-26554-6. Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
^Horn, Heather (27 May 2016). "The Voters Who Want Islam Out of Germany". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 22 January 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2018. The AfD's founder Bernd Lucke, an economics professor, left the party last summer, condemning rising xenophobia.
Dervis, Kemal; Mistral, Jacques (2014). "Overview". In Dervis, Kemal; Mistral, Jacques (eds.). Europe's Crisis, Europe's Future. Brookings Institution Press. p. 13. ISBN978-0-8157-2554-1. Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 17 March 2016.