By Michael Krieger: The German political party known as the AfD,
or “Alternative for Germany,” first came to my attention a year ago.
Upon reading about it, I became so interested in this new party (it has
only been around since early 2013) that I composed a post titled:
Anti-Euro Party in Germany Makes Significant Headway into Parliamentary Elections. Here’s an excerpt:
Anti-Euro Party in Germany Makes Significant Headway into Parliamentary Elections. Here’s an excerpt:
German parliamentary elections are coming up on Sept. 22, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has a problem on her hands. A euro-skeptical political party known as AfD is rising in the polls and could deny her Christian Democratic Union and its coalition partners the majority they need to continue governing.
AfD, or Alternative for Germany, currently holds no seats in the Bundestag, and until recently it barely registered in public-opinion polls. But a survey released on Sept. 4 by the Forsa polling group showed it with 4 per cent support—just shy of the 5 per cent needed to win Bundestag representation.Peter Matuschek, Forsa’s chief political analyst, says the poll may have underestimated the party’s strength. Many supporters, he told Spiegel, “are too embarrassed to admit that they are planning to vote for the AfD,” which wants Greece, Spain, and other crisis-hit countries to leave the euro zone, and possibly break up the existing monetary union itself.
That was then, this is now. From Ambrose-Evans Pritchard at the UK Telegraph:
Standard & Poor’s has issued an extraordinary credit alert on the eurozone, one that deserves close attention.