Alternative for Germany in the context of "Grand coalition (Germany)"

Patriots for Europe (PfE or Patriots) is a right-wing to far-right sovereigntist political group, formed as the third-largest group ahead of the tenth European Parliament.

The group includes all MEPs of the former Identity and Democracy group (except one MEP from AfD), as well as members from other groups. The group also seeks to coordinate the work of its members at the European Council and the Council of the European Union.

The Federal Republic of Germany has a plural multi-party system. Historically, the largest by members and parliament seats are the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Germany also has a number of other parties, in recent history most importantly the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Alliance 90/The Greens, The Left, and more recently the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The federal government of Germany often consisted of a coalition of a major and a minor party, specifically CDU/CSU and FDP or SPD and FDP, and from 1998 to 2005 SPD and Greens. From 1966 to 1969, from 2005 to 2009, from 2013 to 2021 and since 2025, the federal government consisted of a coalition of the two major parties, called a grand coalition.

Coalitions in the Bundestag and state legislatures are often described by party colors. Party colors are red for the Social Democratic Party, green for Alliance 90/The Greens, yellow for the Free Democratic Party, purple (officially red, which is customarily used for the SPD) for the Left, light blue for the AfD, and black and blue for the CDU and CSU respectively.

The 2025 German federal election was held in Germany on 23 February 2025 to elect the 630 members of the 21st Bundestag, down from 736 in 2021 due to reforms in seat distribution. The 2025 election took place seven months ahead of schedule due to the 2024 collapse of the Scholz governing coalition. Following the loss of his majority, the chancellor called and intentionally lost a motion of confidence, which enabled the approval of a new election by the president. The 2025 election was the fourth snap election in post-war German history, and the first since 2005.

Three opposition parties increased their votes in the election, compared with the previous federal election in 2021. The conservative CDU/CSU alliance became the largest group in the Bundestag, with 28.5% of votes. Although this result was well below the 41.5% vote Angela Merkel had achieved in 2013 and its second to worst since 1949, it positioned them to lead the new government. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 20.8% doubled its share and achieved its best result in nation-wide German elections, moving into second place, without any other party willing to work with them. The socialist Left party, polling well under 5% until January 2025, massively improved within a few weeks to 9%. On the other hand, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a populist splinter from the Left, fell in the polls, and at 4.98% narrowly failed to enter the Bundestag.

The far-right in Germany (German: rechtsextrem) slowly reorganised itself after the fall of Nazi Germany and the dissolution and subsequent ban of the Nazi Party in 1945. Denazification was carried out in Germany from 1945 to 1949 by the Allied forces of World War II, with an attempt of eliminating Nazism from the country. However, various far-right parties emerged in the post-war period, with varying success. Most parties only lasted a few years before either dissolving or being banned, and explicitly far-right parties rarely gained seats in the Bundestag (West Germany's and now modern Germany's federal parliament) post-WWII until the 2010s. In the communist state of East Germany, open right-wing radicalism was relatively weak until the 1980s. Later, smaller extremist groups formed (e.g. those associated with football violence).

The most successful far-right party in Germany in the immediate post-war period was the Deutsche Rechtspartei (German Right Party), which attracted former Nazis and won five seats in the 1949 West German federal election and held these seats for four years, before losing them in the 1953 West German federal election. At the 2017 German federal election, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won 94 seats and became the largest opposition party in the Bundestag, the first time a far-right party other than the Deutsche Rechtspartei won seats in the Bundestag since the dissolution of the Nazi Party after World War II.

"There is no alternative" (TINA) is a political slogan originally arguing that liberal capitalism is the only viable system. At the turn of the 21st century the TINA rhetoric became closely tied to neoliberalism, and its traits of liberalization and marketization. Politicians used it to justify policies of economic liberalism (or fiscal conservatism) and austerity. The slogan is strongly associated with the policies and persona of Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party during the 1980s, and, as German: alternativlos, with Angela Merkel, who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 until 2021.

Researchers of populism generally agree that its growth since the 1990s is the result of political elites accepting certain concepts (like free market) as unalterable truths and the associated disappearance of the political discord (so-called post-politics). This created a virtual "party cartel", where the views of established parties did not differ on policies. A rise in dissatisfaction with these policies coupled with a lack of opposition to them by mainstream parties has led to the rise of new populist parties, such as Alternative for Germany and Viktor Orbán's post-2016 version of Fidesz in Hungary.

A federal election was held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 overhang and leveling seats determined thereafter.

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CDU/CSU), led by incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel, won the highest percentage of the vote with 33%, though it suffered a large swing against it of more than 8%. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) achieved its second worst result since post-war Germany at 21%, undercut only by its 2025 result. Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was previously unrepresented in the Bundestag, became the third party in the Bundestag with 12.6% of the vote, whilst the Free Democratic Party (FDP) won 10.7% of the vote and returned to the Bundestag after losing all their seats in 2013. It was the first time since 1957 that a party to the political right of the CDU/CSU gained seats in the Bundestag. The other parties to achieve representation in the Bundestag were the Left and Alliance 90/The Greens, each close to 9% of the vote. In the 709 member Bundestag, a majority is 355 and the CDU/CSU won 246 seats (200 CDU and 46 CSU), the SPD 153, the AfD 94, the FDP 80, The Left 69, and the Greens 67.

Eberhardt Alexander Gauland (born 20 February 1941) is a German politician, journalist and lawyer who served as leader of the political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Bundestag from September 2017 to 2021, and co-leader of the party from December 2017 to November 2019. He has been the Member of the Bundestag (MdB) for Chemnitz since March 2025, having previously served on the state list of Brandenburg from September 2017. Gauland was the party's co-founder and was its federal spokesman from 2017 to 2019 and the party leader for the state of Brandenburg from 2013 to 2017.

Alice Elisabeth Weidel (German: [aˈliːs eˈliːzabɛt ˈvaɪdl̩]; born 6 February 1979) is a German far-right politician who has been serving as co-chairwoman of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party alongside Tino Chrupalla since June 2022. Since October 2017, she has held the position of leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

Weidel became a member of the Bundestag (MdB) in the 2017 federal election, where she was the AfD's lead candidate alongside Alexander Gauland. In the 2021 federal election, she once again served as their lead candidate, alongside Tino Chrupalla. From February 2020 to July 2022, Weidel held the position of chairwoman of the AfD state association in Baden-Württemberg. In 2024, she was selected as her party's candidate for Chancellor in the 2025 German federal election.