Stora tråden om AfD

In an interview with the Sunday edition of the newspaper "Die Welt," Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-chair Frauke Petry called for revaluing the term "völkisch," which is closely associated with National Socialism.

Duden, the German dictionary of record, defines "völkisch" as follows: "1. (National Socialist) (in the ideology of National Socialism), concerning a people as a purported race; of or belonging to a people as a purported race 2. (obsolete) national."

"It's unacceptable to reduce the word 'völkisch' to 'racist,'" Petry said. "I myself don't use the term, but I have a problem with the negative connotations of the concept 'völkisch' being extended to the word 'Volk.' We need to work on giving the concept positive connotations."

The word "Volk" had racial connotations during the Third Reich but continues to be used in common speech to signify people in the sense of the German people. By contrast, the adjective "völkisch" has no active meaning apart from Nazi racist ideas.

Alternative for Germany party leader Frauke Petry's car has been set ablaze in a suspected arson attack. ---

Police in the eastern city of Leipzig said they were still investigating the scene of the blaze, which occurred on Friday night.

"We are currently assuming it was arson," a police spokeswoman said, adding there had been no claim of responsibility.

Die AfD ---beklagte auf Facebook, die Angriffe auf AfD-Mitglieder hätten in den vergangenen Monaten ein Maß erreicht, "das an Terror grenzt". Sie machte dafür die "Hetze von Gabriel, Stegner, Maas und Co." verantwortlich. Sie warf ihren politischen Gegnern vor, sich "mangels Argumenten nicht auf demokratische Weise mit den politischen Mitbewerbern" auseinandersetzen zu können.

The AfD is pulling ahead of the Greens, the Left party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), putting it on track to become the third-largest party in the country, according to a new poll released by German public broadcaster ARD.

The poll shows the AfD's support at 16 percent, its best showing yet. Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came in at 32 percent and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) at 22 percent.

Though both parties each lost one percentage point since the last ARD poll on September 1, the CDU and SPD still won enough support to maintain the ruling "grand coalition" if a federal election were held now.

Authorities said on Thursday they were investigating Rudolf Müller, a top candidate from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), after journalists reported that his antique store in Saarbrücken contained items that possibly violated German law.

Both the magazine "Stern" and public broadcaster ARD reported that Müller's shop had sold them money from concentration camps and medals with swastikas on them dating back to the World War II era.

I helgen kommer högernationalistiska Alternative für Deutschland att hålla en konferens inom ramen för EU-gruppen Europe of Nations and Freedom. Men alla medier får inte rapportera från konferensen – bland annat har public service-medier portats av AfD.

A leading member of German right-wing populist party AfD sparked an outcry Wednesday by criticising the Holocaust memorial in Berlin and calling for the country to stop atoning for its Nazi past.

Bjoern Hoecke’s comments also exposed a damaging split in the anti-immigration party, just months before Germany heads to the polls.

“Up to now, our state of mind is still one of a totally defeated people… We Germans, our people, are the only people in the world who have planted a monument of shame in the heart of the capital,” Hoecke told party faithful including youth members, according to a video of the speech circulated online.

"Germans are the only people in the world who plant a monument of shame in the heart of the capital," Hoecke, said in a speech to young members of the party in Dresden, the cradle of the anti-Muslim PEGIDA movement.

The Holocaust Memorial, located near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, comprises a large number of grey granite slabs of varying heights, arranged in a grid pattern - a somber reminder of the millions killed during the Holocaust.

Germany's Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said Hoecke's speech had sent shivers down his spine.

"Never, never must we allow ourselves to let the demagogy of a Bjoern Hoecke go unchallenged," he said.