#Putin’s war against #Ukraine has divided the far right in Germany. Some show solidarity with the Ukrainian people & are sharing information on how to sign up w/ the far-right #Azov battalion. Others sympathise with Putin & buy into Kremlin propaganda. 🧵 Thread 1/18 A case in point is the #AfD: the party has often been very sympathetic with Putin. But party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have now clearly denounced the Russian invasion, saying it cannot be justified and Russia must withdraw its troops immediately. 2/18

The #AfD never was a protest party. It has a solid radical right-wing core voter base that it can rely on. 11% for a far-right party in Germany - that is still the bitter reality. #btw21 1/4 Around 80 AfD officials + employees move into the Bundestag, means:
➡️far-right structures continue to be supplied with posts, money and power.
➡️strong funding & expansion of far-right networks.
➡️AfD solidified as parliamentary arm of the "new" right
2/4

According to exit polls, the far-right AfD just won approximately 10-11% of the vote in the German elections, losing only about 1.5% since 2017. This is an extreme right-wing party, even according to Germany’s intelligence services. 1/5 #btw21 Neither the departure of more “moderate” voices since 2017, nor scandals & fraud cases w/ donations & ad financing, observation by intelligence services or scores of documented links violent neo-nazis could really harm the party. 2/5 #btw21