A new political brochure published by Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has right-wingers up in arms.
The 32-page booklet entitled Decline for Germany, not an Alternative launches a number of wild claims about the country’s main opposition party, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) – which became the largest opposition force in the Bundestag following the February 2025 federal election.
AfD cultural policy spokesman Götz Frömming called the brochure “outrageous” on May 20, 2026, and said the CDU was disseminating “long-debunked lies about AfD”.
Among other things, the brochure accuses AfD of “wanting a one-party state similar to the [Communist] German Democratic Republic or National Socialism”.
It claims AfD was “attacking the protective mechanisms of our democracy itself” because AfD representatives had voiced their frustration with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) – which has long spearheaded a push to ban AfD altogether. The BfV classified AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organisation in May 2025, a designation the party is currently challenging in court.
The Conservatives further claim that hatred for Jews was a “core part” of AfD ideology – arguing that the party was anti-Semitic because it positioned itself as making politics for the people and against out-of-touch elites.
The brochure uses a quote by AfD honorary chairman Alexander Gauland as evidence for this, in which Gauland speaks of a “globalised class” in companies, parties and NGOs which sets the pace “culturally and politically”.
Finally, the CDU publication accuses AfD of wanting to deport millions of German citizens whom they consider unworthy:
“All people are equal … but the AfD does not believe this. For them not all people are equal, not even all Germans. Leading AfD politicians openly say that a German passport is not enough. They speak of ‘passport Germans’ and ‘real’ and ‘better’ Germans. The AfD openly says it wants to deport millions of people, even German citizens.”
As news site Nius reported on May 20, 2026, this claim had already been ruled false by a German court in March 2026 – when it banned a left-wing NGO from disseminating similar accusations about the right-wingers.
With the new brochure – which can be ordered in bulk in the CDU’s online shop – the Conservatives have yet again cranked up the level of accusations and hysteria vis-à-vis their political contenders on the right.
Leading CDU representatives have also chosen even more escalatory rhetoric lately. On May 14, 2026, Conservative State prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst said in a speech at the German Catholics’ Day that a government takeover by AfD would be highly dangerous:
“In the case of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, too, many would have said that they would soon disappear once it became clear that they were out of their depth in government. Though, it was not the Nazis who disappeared, but freedom of speech and of the press, as well as an independent judiciary – and all within a matter of weeks.”
The escalatory rhetoric may be connected with the right-wingers’ recent rise in the polls. In two long-running surveys by pollsters Forsa and Insa, AfD recently reached all-time highs of 28 and 29 per cent of the vote – while CDU has fallen to just 22 per cent in both polls, six percentage points less than at the February 2025 general election.
Brussels Signal contacted CDU for comment but had not heard back at the time of writing.
German journalist Christoph Lemmer commented on the brochure:
“Whether the AfD stands for ‘Germany’s decline’ may or may not be the case. That remains to be proven. For the CDU and CSU, it has been the case ever since [former chancellor Angela] Merkel came to power.”