The ruling establishment fears that the AfD’s continued rise in spite of all prior smears could lead to the party one day breaking the “firewall” to participate in a governing coalition, possibly with the US’ behind-the-scenes support, which contextualizes their latest over-the-top attack against them.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) MP Marc Heinrichmass, who’s a member of the Parliamentary Control Committee overseeing intelligence services, alleged during a Bundestag debate that the AfD is “being led around the ring by the Kremlin on a leash.” He also snarked that

“At the very least, they have a sleeper cell loyal to Russia in their ranks. How lucky for Vladimir Putin that the AfD exists in Germany.”

The context was his objection to their party’s parliamentary inquiries into military and infrastructure topics.

Some of the questions that the AfD sought answers to covered arms deliveries to Ukraine, power stations, drone production, and army bases, to which the government refused to answer ten of them on national security pretexts. The CDU is now seeking to exploit those selfsame questions to advance the long-running smear that the AfD, which is now Germany’s most popular party, is a Russian proxy. The reality, however, is that these are legitimate questions for any responsible party to ask about.

The Ukrainian Conflict represents the largest outbreak of violence on the continent since World War II, the Western elite themselves have warned that Russia might try to attack or hack critical infrastructure, drones are the future of warfare, and Germany is at the center of the nascent “military Schengen”. Just because the CDU, which leads Germany’s governing coalition, dislikes the AfD’s approach towards the Ukrainian Conflict and relations with Russia more broadly doesn’t mean that they’re Putin’s puppets.

In fact, their failure to inquire about these subjects could also be used against them to much more compellingly argue that they’re irresponsible and lack an understanding of the national interest, thus supposedly disqualifying them from ever leading a governing coalition like they one day hope to. The AfD is therefore caught in a dilemma because whatever they do or don’t do will never please the ruling establishment, which fiercely hates them and wants to keep them out of power at all costs.

To that end, they’ve done everything from smearing them as a Russian proxy to implying that they’re unprincipled conservatives for allegedly considering an alliance with leftists at Moscow’s urging, the last narrative of which they nevertheless contradicted by also insisting that they’re far-right extremists. All the while, the AfD’s popularity has continued to rise in spite of the so-called “firewall” that establishment parties have built to keep them out of any future governing coalition.

The aforesaid political trend speaks to the dissent that’s being expressed by a rising number of Germans. They’re supporting a party whose chances of leading the country remain slim since they’re unlikely to ever achieve a parliamentary majority, which the establishment would predictably deny them through a Romanian-like redo, lawfare, or worse if the need arises, and a hypothetical coalition between them and the non-systemic leftist opposition remains a pipedream. It probably wouldn’t hold either in any case.

Even though the abovementioned dissent therefore doesn’t pose an imminent threat to the establishment, it still shows that the elite are hemorrhaging support among the people in whose name they officially govern. This has in turn prompted them to panic, perhaps due to the fear that the AfD might one day obtain enough support among the population to break the “firewall” (with the US’ behind-the-scenes help?), which thus contextualizes their latest over-the-top attack against them.

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This article was originally published on the author’s Substack.

Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from the author

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