The populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party will be deprived of hundreds of millions of euros to which other political parties will remain entitled after the country passed a new law requiring parties to have been represented in the German parliament three times in a row before they can receive federal cash.
The AfD was first elected to the German parliament in 2017 and was re-elected in 2021, meaning its affiliate foundation, called the Desiderius Erasmus Stiftung, will receive nothing, despite the party currently polling second nationally, above German Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s Social Democrats (SDP).
The Desiderius Erasmus Stiftung’s chairman, Erika Steinbach, argued the decision “quite openly demonstrated an oppressive contempt for democracy that would do credit to any authoritarian country.”
The decision was similarly denounced by AfD Member of Parliament Mariana Harder-Kühnel, who said, “the establishment of an instrument to weaken the opposition could become a problem in a free, democratic constitutional state.”
The law comes after a series of attempts by the German establishment to attack the AfD following its electoral gains over the past several years. Several high-ranking politicians – including German President Frank Walter Steinmeier – have floated the idea of banning the party, while its members have been repeatedly physically attacked.
 – April 17th, 2026.&image=https://thenationalpulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/55213515586_6327b23df8_k.jpg){kind=link}
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