Germany
The story
1949-2011 · POST-WAR MARGINALISATION
West Germany long kept extremist parties on the fringe. The KPD sat in the Bundestag only in 1949, and the fascist DRP briefly too. The DP and GB/BHE joined Adenauer’s governments, but by 1960 no party stood to the right of the CDU/CSU. The NPD, REP and DVU later won regional or European seats without lasting success, and the NPD and DVU merged in 2011 with little effect.
1990-2025 · DIE LINKE
The PDS, successor to East Germany’s ruling party, entered the Bundestag in 1990 and became a major force in the East. It merged with the WASG into Die Linke in 2007, and Bodo Ramelow became Thuringia’s Minister-President in 2014. After falling to 4.9 percent in 2021 and losing Wagenknecht’s faction in 2023, it recovered to 8.8 percent and 64 seats in 2025. It is economically left, progressive and softly eurosceptic.
2024-2026 · BSW
Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW, founded in January 2024, mixes left-wing economics with restrictive migration policy and opposition to Ukraine aid and Russia sanctions. It won 6.2 percent in the 2024 European election and entered coalitions in Thuringia and Brandenburg, the latter collapsing in January 2026. It missed the Bundestag threshold with 4.98% in 2025, then fell to 1.4% in Baden-Württemberg and 2.0% in Rhineland-Palatinate in March 2026, before winning 6.8% and entering parliament in Saxony-Anhalt in September.
Also on the ballot
The neo-Nazi NPD scored its worst-ever result in 2021.
2013-2021 · AfD’S RISE AND RADICALISATION
Founded in 2013 as the eurosceptic “professors’ party”, AfD turned nationalist and anti-immigration after Frauke Petry replaced Bernd Lucke in 2015, then anti-Islam and pro-Russian after the refugee crisis. It entered the Bundestag in 2017 with 12.6 percent. Radical figures like Björn Höcke gained influence while liberal and national-conservative factions weakened. A modest setback to 10.4 percent in 2021 preceded rapid growth.
2023-2026 · AFD’S BREAKTHROUGH
AfD won its first district executive post in 2023, topped Thuringia in 2024 and took 15.9 percent in the European election. In February 2025 it reached 20.8 percent and 152 seats, second behind the CDU/CSU, and then gained in western states in 2026 and won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt and 38.2% in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Other parties still reject cooperation. It is economically right, culturally conservative, hard eurosceptic and high on authoritarianism, with Atlanticist and pro-Russian wings divided but united against Ukraine aid.
EP elections
Die Linke and its PDS predecessor have sat in the GUE group in every parliament since 1999. AfD has won seats since 2014; expelled from Identity and Democracy shortly before the 2024 election, it now leads the Europe of Sovereign Nations group. Germany's 2014 abolition of its EP electoral threshold let the NPD win one seat that year, though it lost it again in 2019. BSW entered with six seats (6.2%) in 2024.
DIE LINKE
The Left
- Economics Left
- Social issues Progressive
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Low
BSW
Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance
- Economics Left
- Social issues Conservative
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Medium
AfD
Alternative for Germany
- Economics Right
- Social issues Conservative
- EU Hard euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism High