The AfD - Alternative for Germany - was founded in 2013 to protest the Euro rescue policy. Originally conservative-liberal, but to the right of the CDU/CSU, the party presented itself after 2015 as the main opponent to Angela Merkel's migration policy. It subsequently achieved electoral success, including its entry into the Bundestag in 2017.

In 2018, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified 24,100 people in Germany as right-wing extremists. More than one out of two right-wing extremists is described as “violence-oriented”.  These figures demonstrate the high level of threat in the German constitutional democracy, which has already manifested itself in the form of various terrorist attacks against foreigners, religious communities and more recently politicians.

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, celebrations have taken a disappointing turn. The electoral successes of the far-right German party AfD (Alternative for Germany (in German:  Alternative für Deutschland)) in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia in September and October 2019 reflect growing unease and discontent in the new Länder faced with mitigated outcomes of the unification.

The German Legislation on Improving Law Enforcement in Social Networks (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz – NetzDG), which came into force on October 1, 2017, is the legislative response to how social networks handle complaints about illegal content. 

Whether we think of France, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria or Germany, the social democratic or socialist parties in Europe are losing ground or even facing dissolution. Ironically, the crisis of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) began with the resounding victory of Gerhard Schröder in 1998.

In Germany, an important role is ascribed to development policy when considering the question of how to deal with the causes of displacement and irregular migration. Development policy seeks to enable (potential) migrants to enjoy brighter prospects in their countries of origin through job creation measures so that they do not embark on the dangerous journey to Europe (or Germany) in the first place.

Even though the CDU-CSU led Grand Coalition was renewed following the German legislative elections of 24 September 2017, and even though Angela Merkel was re-elected chancellor a fourth consecutive term, the country has entered a period of growing political uncertainty. The formation of a new government took much longer than after previous elections for a number of different reasons: after negotiations, the liberal party refused to join a coalition with the CDU-CSU and the Green party, the SPD was reluctant to continue in government, and, above all, the internal divisions of the two sister parties CDU et CSU, that nearly caused the fall of the new government three months after its investiture.