German far-right populists ramp up the rhetoric as Merkel’s party slumps, days before election
Germany’s right-wing populist AfD party ramped up attacks Monday against immigration and Islam as its poll ratings jumped in the final stretch of election campaigning, while Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party dipped.
The Muslim religion “does not belong in Germany”, said a top candidate of the Alternative for Germany, Alexander Gauland, who argued that its “political doctrine is not compatible with a free country”.
“Islamist rhetoric and violence and terror have roots in the Koran and in the teachings of Islam,” he told reporters.
Gauland has argued Germany should be proud of its veterans of two world wars. And Weidel has reportedly employed an asylum seeker without paying tax, a claim she has denied.
Latest polls show the AfD at 10-12 per cent, up from eight-10 per cent, potentially making it Germany’s third-strongest party.
But Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian allies CSU slipped two points to 36 per cent, close to the all-time low of 35 per cent when the Social Democrats (SPD) led by Gerhard Schroeder defeated them in 1998.