Frauke Petry, chairwoman of Alternative for Germany (AfD), cites Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and her party, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany as sparking the AfD.
“AfD is a child of Merkel’s politics,” Petry said in a Telegraph article. “That is what describes us best. We are here because Merkel’s government failed to deal with important topics of society in Germany and Europe.”
One of Merkel’s policies that Petry criticizes is her open-door refugee policy, for which Petry has accused her of giving up German sovereignty. Petry and the AfD want to reintroduce border controls and completely shut the EU’s external borders. The party calls for a return to national values according to their manifesto.
AfD believes that Islam does not belong in Germany and that multiculturalism does not work. They call for a ban in Germany on foreign- funded mosques, the burqa (full body veil) and the Muslim call to prayer, as well as for putting all imams through a state vetting procedure.
There are more than four million Muslims in Germany, many of which are German citizens and more than one million refugees in the country.
According to the party’s manifesto they also propose incentivizing German women to have three or more children, prosecuting “therapy resistant” drug addicts and a flat tax of 20 percent.
