Why the AfD Will Win the Culture War – and What Happens Next

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The Brosius-Gersdorf case shows: The culture war is worth fighting! Why the conservatives have long lost it, why the AfD will win it, and what that means for society, writes leading AfD politician Beatrix von Storch.

The fastest way to end a culture war is to lose it. The reason there hasn’t been a culture war in Germany so far is that only one side has been fighting it, and with utmost ruthlessness. The old Federal Republic was a liberal-conservative country and a prime example of a citizens rule of law. The success of post-World War II West Germany lay in its intellectual roots, the combination of Christian social teaching and ordoliberalism, embodied by Adenauer and Erhard. Both Adenauer and Erhard would be considered “too right-wing” for today’s CDU.

Opposition Strategy: Why the AfD Will Win the Culture War – and What Happens Next

Anyone familiar with the AfD’s platform knows that its positions largely align with those of the “democratic center” of the old Federal Republic. There is practically no AfD position that wasn’t part of the political center and societal mainstream in the old Federal Republic. It’s absurd that positions shared by virtually all members of the Parliamentary Council, which drafted the Basic Law, are now suddenly deemed unconstitutional.

The Political Left Is Becoming Increasingly Radical

It’s not the AfD that has radicalized; society has radicalized under the immense pressure and relentless culture war waged by the radical left. The situation in Germany today is the result of decades of leftist cultural warfare. What is now considered the “democratic center” was, just two decades ago, regarded as the fringe of left-wing radicalism. “Open borders,” choosing one’s gender through speech, gendering language, early sexualization in kindergartens, puberty blockers for children and adolescents, fast-track naturalization for refugees and asylum seekers, the criminalization of national and cultural identity, the phase-out of coal and nuclear energy, and calls to abolish Section 218 of the abortion law—all of this was considered too far left even for the SPD under Gerhard Schröder and Franz Müntefering. Except for the fundamentalist wing of the Greens, autonomists, Antifa, and small leftist university circles, no one supported these ideas.

Today, anyone who doesn’t support this agenda is labeled a reactionary, Nazi, or fascist by the leftist mainstream. At the very least, they’re called outdated; more likely, they’re branded a racist for using the word “Indianer” or transphobic for refusing to address a man as a woman. It’s the ultimate moral punishment.

The Left’s March Through the Institutions in the 1970s

How was it possible for the republic to tilt so far to the left? In the 1970s, the radical left began its march through the institutions. They moved from radical sects like the K-Groups, Spontis, and Stamokap groups into the highest leadership positions. They captured universities and schools, the media (especially public broadcasting), associations, unions, public administration, the judiciary, the Protestant Church, and even parts of the Catholic Church. The last institution now at risk of falling is the Federal Constitutional Court. The attempt to place two radical left activists, Brosius-Gersdorf and Kaufhold, in key positions serves precisely this purpose—to dismantle the last remnants of the liberal-conservative legacy of the old Federal Republic. The left’s success was due to the imbalance between political camps. The left was always a minority in Germany, but a militant, fanatical, zealous minority. The citizens-conservative majority, on the other hand, was primarily a silent majority.

The Silent Citizens Majority Wanted Comfort

While the left was ideological, fanatical, ruthless, and aggressive, never hesitating to defame, threaten, or socially destroy political opponents, the silent citizens majority in Germany was primarily concerned with peace, order, and convenience. While the left actively waged the culture war, the citizens majority sought to avoid it. While the left pulled out all the stops—renaming streets, removing crosses, and tabooing words—the citizens-conservative majority relied on appeasement.

De-Christianization as an Accelerator

This is also connected to the de-Christianization since the 1960s, which robbed citizens-conservative Germany of its crucial ideological and social cohesion. In Germany, the left had a worldview, while after de-Christianization, the citizens side was left with only a lifestyle. In the U.S., resistance to this trend was much stronger because the spiritual legacy of Christianity was kept alive in free churches, while it withered in Germany’s state churches. What remained as a common agenda after de-Christianization was the citizens desire for peace and stability, and thus the wish to prevent a culture war, which essentially meant coming to terms with the radical forces on the left.

The Culture War Was Long Pacified Through Compromises

To prevent a culture war in Germany, a series of societal compromises were made. These included the 1992 asylum compromise, which stipulated that no one coming from a safe third country could claim asylum; the Federal Constitutional Court’s abortion ruling, which declared abortion to be wrong but left it unpunished; the introduction of registered partnerships, which allowed same-sex couples to live in a marriage-like arrangement; and the agreement on citizenship, which permitted dual citizenship but required immigrants to eventually choose. Even the Maastricht Treaty was such a compromise: Germans gave up the Deutsche Mark in exchange for the promise that monetary stability would be the top priority.

Between 2010 and 2020, virtually all these political compromises were abandoned. The fact that social peace in Germany was never threatened from the “right” is evident from a simple, undeniable fact: none of these compromises were broken by the right. Every single one was torpedoed and shredded by the left. Unlike the citizens-conservative camp, the left pursued a salami tactic. The left never saw these compromises as final solutions but as mere stages on the path to a complete ideological overhaul of society. The citizens-conservative side often reluctantly agreed to these compromises, hoping to pacify society, take the wind out of the left’s sails, and secure consideration for their own positions in return. However, the left was never willing to commit to a societal compromise for the sake of peace. It will continue until every trace of traditional, conservative values is eradicated from society.

The Firewall Primarily Works Against the Union

When some leftist commentators praise “conservatives” to pit them against the AfD, it’s hypocrisy. When CDU-affiliated commentators do the same, it’s self-deception. The fact that even minimal changes to family reunification, citizenship, or citizen’s income push the SPD to its limits shows there is no political space for conservatives within the firewall. The left sees even the removal of a rainbow flag or a simple parliamentary inquiry about NGO funding as a declaration of war. The firewall primarily works not against the AfD but against the Union. For the SPD, Greens, and Left Party, the firewall serves to exclude the AfD from political decision-making, but it equally aims to trap the CDU/CSU on the left side of the firewall.

Two Concepts of the Culture War

The rise of the AfD has fundamentally changed the situation. The difference between the pre-Merkel CDU/CSU and toay’s AfD in the culture war can be explained with two Cold War concepts: containment and rollback. During the Cold War, the West pursued two central foreign policy strategies against the Soviet Union: containment, which aimed to limit the spread of communism without reclaiming already communist-controlled areas, and rollback, which sought to actively push back communist influence. The containment strategy of the old CDU/CSU and Merz’s conservatives accepts the ideological gains and influence of the left, aiming only to prevent things from getting worse. The AfD, however, seeks to actively roll back the left’s influence on politics, society, and culture.

Why the AfD Will Break the Left’s Dominance

There are three reasons why the AfD is poised to break the left’s dominance:

1. The AfD does not aim to appease the left or delay the implementation of leftist concepts to make them more palatable to citizens through compromises. Instead, it seeks to roll back leftist policies in society and culture.

2. The left’s established tools of dominance—media campaigns, mass mobilization, leftist activism, and denunciation, which secured their dominance for decades and allowed them to shoot down political opponents like clay pigeons—are becoming increasingly ineffective against the AfD.

3. For the first time in its history, the CDU/CSU faces a serious political competitor within its own camp. Compromises with leftist culture warriors are no longer possible without risking significant losses to the AfD. Just as the Brexit Party pushed the Conservatives and the MAGA movement drove the Republicans, the AfD is driving the CDU.

The main reason the left is increasingly calling for an AfD ban is that there will no longer be leftist majorities in Germany, and a structurally right-conservative majority is inevitable. With no majority left for the SPD, Greens, and Left Party, the firewall or a ban are their only ways to retain political influence.

The Wind No Longer Blows from the Left

Even the opportunism of the CDU/CSU, which guaranteed leftist policies for decades, has become a threat to the left. Someone willing to abandon the debt brake within a week after defending it for decades is also capable of dismantling the firewall, despite years of claiming otherwise. For the classic Christian Democrat, stability is paramount. If stable cross-party alliances with leftist parties are no longer possible, and the divides between the citizens-conservative and leftist camps become too wide to bridge—as in the case of the Brosius-Gersdorf judge election—realizing the existing right-conservative majority in Germany becomes the only remaining option.

Leftist Mobilization Fails

When Friedrich Merz, at the height of the election campaign, put the asylum issue to a vote in the Bundestag, accepting that it could only pass with AfD votes, it triggered mass protests, as seen earlier after the alleged “Potsdam Conference.” These left-initiated protests yielded a highly interesting result: neither the CDU/CSU nor the AfD performed differently than predicted in the weeks prior. For the voters of the Union and AfD, who together hold an absolute majority, the demonstrations were irrelevant. The “fight against the right” primarily harmed two parties: the SPD and the Greens. 570,000 Social Democrats and 700,000 Greens switched to the Reichinnek group. But neither the SPD nor the Greens gained votes from the AfD or CDU. The left’s mobilization against the “right” pushes their own voters to the far-left fringe. The revolution is devouring its own children. The “fight against the right” now means political cannibalization within the left. Instead of defeating the AfD, the left is eating itself.

Culture War as Political Judo

The AfD doesn’t need to fight the culture war as a wrestling match but as a judoka. In judo, the goal is to use the opponent’s strength to bring them down, allowing a smaller fighter to defeat a larger one. When the so-called “Center for Political Beauty” used its organizational power to disrupt Alice Weidel’s summer interview, it didn’t deter a single AfD voter. For the AfD, voters over 60 are a key group where we are not yet strong. We know this group still consumes public broadcasting. With Alice Weidel’s calm and intelligent performance in contrast to the malicious and primitive disruption by our opponents, we gained ground with this important group.

The SPD Is in a Dead End

With its 100% demand for an AfD ban, the SPD has blocked its own path to winning back workers who vote for the AfD. The Greens, with their obsession with nuclear power and migration, have made it nearly impossible to become the strongest party in Baden-Württemberg again. The Left Party, led by Heidi Reichinnek and Ferat Kocak, is shrinking the SPD and Greens, pushing them further left, but this will certainly not win a single AfD voter in eastern Germany.

We will not do to the left what they do and want to do to us. We will not censor them, jail them for their opinions, send police to their homes for their online posts, strip them of their parliamentary rights, ban their parties, prevent them from protesting, or stop them from running in mayoral elections in Ludwigshafen. We only want to ensure they don’t do so at the taxpayers’ expense and that they remain non-violent. We will not ban them from public expression. On the contrary: we will shine a massive spotlight on the Ganserers, Kocaks, Brosius-Gersdorfs, and Kaufholds so that the large citizens-conservative majority in the country sees how crazy they are. The lunatics in one’s own camp are the opponent’s best allies. No one is so bad that they can’t still serve as a bad example. The lunatics in their own camp are the left’s greatest allies. Even the simplest mind must understand that it’s better to be governed by a right-conservative government, even if one doesn’t identify with every aspect, than by the left-green pseudo-academic fringe.

This is precisely why the U.S. Democrats lost the last election. Faced with the choice between climate hysteria, gender nonsense, and open borders on one side and Donald Trump on the other, even those who couldn’t imagine it before voted for Trump. The culture war with the radical left drives them further into their ideological bubble and pushes citizens-conservative voters in ever greater numbers toward the AfD. We will win.