German bishops v. the AfD: Who’s winning?

The bishops condemned the party, but it has just claimed a ‘historic’ election victory.

In February, Germany’s bishops took the rare step of condemning a political party by name. 

On Sept. 1, that party won its first state election, in what observers described as a “political earthquake” in Western Europe’s most populous nation.

AfD election posters in the German state of Saxony. Lupus in Saxonia via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). 

Has the bishops’ assertive policy against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party backfired? How much can we read into the election result? And what’s likely to happen next?

The Pillar takes a look.

What’s the AfD?

The AfD was founded in 2013 by disillusioned members of the center-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), with a platform of abolishing the euro, the currency of 20 European Union member states.

Following the arrival of a record 1.1 million asylum seekers in 2015, the coronavirus pandemic, the Ukraine war, and a cost of living crisis, the AfD evolved into what many commentators describe as a far-right party — though supporters dispute the label.  

The AfD’s current program says that Germany’s border “must be closed immediately to put an immediate end to the unregulated mass immigration of mainly professionally unqualified people into our country and its social systems.”

It seeks to prevent what it calls “the further spread of segregated Islamic parallel societies” within Germany.

It also promises its policies will make Germany “more family- and child-friendly,” and says it rejects “all efforts to declare the killing of unborn children a human right.”

As the AfD’s popularity grew, German bishops and lay leaders intensified their criticism of the party, arguing that its platform was incompatible with Christianity. 

In February, the bishops unanimously approved a statement condemning what it described as “racial (völkisch) nationalism.”

“After several waves of radicalization, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in particular is now dominated by a racial-nationalist attitude,” the bishops said. 

They continued: “We say with all clarity: racial (völkisch) nationalism is incompatible with the Christian image of God and man.” 

“Right-wing extremist parties and those that are rampant on the fringes of this ideology therefore cannot be a place of political activity for Christians and cannot be voted for.”

The bishops also said that “the dissemination of right-wing extremist slogans — including racism and anti-Semitism in particular — is incompatible with professional or voluntary service in the Church.”

That was significant given the Catholic Church is one of Germany’s biggest employers, with almost 700,000 people alone employed by Caritas. Germany also has a sprawling network of Catholic associations, encompassing thousands of paid staff and volunteers.

It wasn’t long before AfD members began to be ousted from Church posts. 

In April, the Diocese of Trier expelled a politician representing the AfD in a state parliament from a parish administrative council. (He appealed against the decision.)

In July, the Diocese of Magdeburg altered its regulations for parish councils and other Church committees to exclude members of “all parties classified as extremist — not just the AfD.”

That same month, a 20-year-old AfD official was reportedly told he could no longer act as an altar server, lector, and occasional organist at a parish in Hamm, a city in western Germany.

The AfD, meanwhile, maintained its political momentum despite scandals and mass protests, coming second, behind the CDU/CSU, in June’s European Parliament election. 

A poster for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance and an East Germany flag on a street in Hartmannsdorf, a muncipality in Thuringia, Germany, ahead of the 2024 state election. Dirk Bindmann via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

What just happened?

On Sept. 1, voters in the states of Saxony and Thuringia went to the polls to elect members of their state parliaments.

In Saxony, an eastern state with around 4 million people, the CDU came first, followed closely by the AfD, with the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a party only formed in January, in third place.

In Thuringia, another eastern state with roughly 2.1 million people, the AfD claimed a “historic” victory, beating the CDU and BSW into second and third place respectively.

Although polls had forecast an AfD victory in Thuringia, the party’s triumph sent shockwaves across the European political landscape. 

(In practice, the party is unlikely to wield power in either state parliament as rival parties have ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD.)

On Sept. 2, Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the influential lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), lamented the election results. 

“The outcome of the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony shows that the seeds of populist and extremist forces are increasingly being sown,” she said.

Stetter-Karp, a long-standing AfD critic, not surprisingly expressed alarm at the party’s gains.

“This party is trampling on the liberal democracy that characterizes the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany,” she said. 

“The AfD does not want to compromise or negotiate what is possible. In Saxony and Thuringia, they are clearly right-wing extremist state associations that aim to end democracy as we know it.” 

In a notable development, she also expressed serious concerns about the BSW, a party founded by the firebrand Sahra Wagenknecht, a former communist.

The BSW, frequently described as far-left, wants further immigration restrictions and an end to military aid to Ukraine (Germany is the second-largest military donor to Ukraine after the U.S.)

Stetter-Karp said the BSW “urgently needs to clarify its understanding of democracy.” Is it a party as defined by Germany’s Basic Law, she asked, “or the project of an individual who wants to hold the reins at both federal and state levels?”

She questioned the BSW’s stance on Russian aggression against Ukraine, as well as its “populist criticism” of Germany’s liberal democracy.

“The BSW promotes the narrative of a deceived society that is not appreciated by the ruling political class,” she said. “As you can see, this has led to double-digit results from the start.”

“We are concerned not only about the pro-Russian statements, but also about the anti-Semitic positions that some members and sympathizers of the BSW are spreading.” 

The three Catholic bishops whose dioceses cover Thuringia described the state election result as “a challenge to us all.”

“For the first time, the AfD has a blocking minority in a German parliament, which can make work in the state parliament and political work in Thuringia as a whole very difficult,” they said Sept. 2. 

“We bishops remain open and willing to seek dialogue with AfD voters.”

“Nevertheless, we would like to emphasize once again that the AfD’s racial [völkisch]-nationalist agenda is not compatible with the Christian faith.”

The bishops also expressed alarm that migrants “are now worried about their safety, that quite a few people are seriously considering leaving Thuringia, or that companies are questioning their future in our state.”

A Church policy failure?

The state election results suggest the Catholic bishops’ outright opposition to the AfD has done nothing to slow its momentum. 

But it might be too soon to reach such a sweeping conclusion. 

Saxony and Thuringia are located in the former East Germany, the AfD’s heartland and the area of Germany with the lowest percentage of Catholics. So Catholics are not a major force in state politics, capable of altering the course of an election. 

While the AfD dominated across Thuringia, the CDU came first in Eichsfeld, a district with a predominantly Catholic population.

According to the Catholic weekly Die Tagespost, 12.6% of Catholics in Eichsfeld attend Sunday Mass, far higher than the national average of 6.2%. The Catholic weekly suggested “it is clear that practicing Catholics are significantly less likely to vote for the AfD.”

A study of the June European Parliament vote, meanwhile, concluded that Catholic members of the Sorbian community — a Slavic ethnic minority — in eastern Saxony were significantly less likely to vote for the AfD than other groups.

Although it’s difficult to establish cause and effect, the bishops’ denunciation of the AfD could be influencing Catholic voters.

But we need more data to gauge the true impact of the bishops’ February statement. 

What’s next

One more German state election will be held this month — in Brandenburg, another state in the former East Germany with a paltry Catholic population. Pollsters forecast an AfD victory.

Attention will then move to Germany’s federal election, scheduled for Sept. 28 next year, which is expected to generate further political upheaval in the country regarded as Europe’s economic powerhouse. 

Current polling suggests the AfD could come second, behind the CDU/CSU, with the BSW gaining almost 10% of votes.

The countdown to next September is likely to be an anxious time for Germany’s Catholic bishops. 

Having already condemned the AfD and signaled their approval for the removal of its members from Church offices, they may not have many tools left to deploy.

They could also face pressure to define their stance on the BSW. If they conclude, like Stetter-Karp, that the party is highly problematic, will they treat it the same way as the AfD or differently?

Once they have set foot in Germany’s volatile party political arena, the bishops may find it hard to resist being drawn ever further in.