PBS:Frontline on the AfD

Last year Frontline ran a documentary on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) which I made a point of watching. Generally I find that PBS does a decent job covering domestic issues and yet like so much of US media is sub-par when it comes to foreign issues. And I remember being less than impressed with the previous coverage of German politics.

Given the recent success of the AfD in the February 2025 German Federal Elections, I thought I would watch this 'update' and see how PBS dealt with the situation - which I admit is disturbing for lots of reasons.

How should I put it? The documentary is worth seeing but highly defective. I was really struck by the amount of time they spent focused on Russia and its campaign to influence elections and steer support into Right-wing parties.

But why wouldn't the Russians do this? Nationalism has the potential to break both the EU and NATO - entities which have identified Russia as an enemy and threat. As expected Frontline ignores the fact that the US meddles in elections all around the world - not just in Germany during the Trump tenure. As such, the entire piece loses a considerable amount of journalistic integrity.

It's amazing, but after all this time there are still Establishment elements desperate to tie Trump to Russia - despite the fact that the campaign to do so utterly collapsed. I suppose one could argue they both misunderstand Putin and Trump. Both men are evil but they've also been misread. The Establishment is blinded by its own narratives.

Further, Moscow does see itself in terms of an Anti-Western narrative. It's not about democracy per se but rather the libertinism that has emerged. Putin and other Right-wing leaders have tapped into a set conservative and traditionalist narratives. Whether they actually share these beliefs is up for debate, as well just how conservative someone like Putin or say Giorgia Meloni really is.

On that note, it should also be pointed out that Ukraine has a serious problem with Right-wing extremism but this ignored. There are also Right-wing parties in Europe that are anti-Russia - one thinks of the PiS in Poland as an example. Even Right-wing figures like Geert Wilders of the Netherlands are hardly cut from the same cloth as Putin or Orban. They may share common ground in their approaches to Islamic culture and immigration - though this is a little more complicated in a place like Russia with a historic Muslim population. For example, the banned figure skater Kamila Valieva is a Tatar and Muslim - and yet obviously not a very conservative one.

And yet, Wilders is otherwise a liberal when it comes to family and sexual politics. His Right-wing ideology is rooted in the Enlightenment and Classical Liberalism and thus very different from the kind of Paleo-Conservatism or even the Semi-Throne and Altar Authoritarian ideology of Orban and Putin. Others might argue they have no real ideology at all.

In other cases the Right (once in power) tends to triangulate. Meloni is a prime example of this as she continues to support the EU's backing of Ukraine. The PBS documentary can safely be described as self-serving and guilty of spin on these points.

I was left puzzled by many points in this Frontline piece. Rubio and Vance attacked German intelligence for monitoring the AfD, but Frontline ignores the fact that AfD is closely connected to American Intelligence and has been for years. Merkel (despite the NSA phone tapping scandal) signed legislation bringing Germany's BND into closer relations with Washington. Effectively her response to the phone tapping scandal was to strengthen ties with the CIA.

In addition, Frontline ignored reports of German law enforcement working with the Right, with Pegida, and other instances in which German intelligence was found to have ties to terror perpetrators within Germany.

The timing of the attacks in the lead up to the 2025 elections was suspicious and rather convenient for the AfD. The first case collapsed as the perpetrator was actually a pro-AfD Middle Easterner but then a second attack came - this time by an Afghan refugee. I was reminded of events connected to the Syrian Civil War and Western intelligence operations in Europe. It all smelled pretty rotten and I'm once again left wondering about AfD support within law enforcement and the intelligence services.

The truth is that in both Europe and the United States there are elements within the Establishment that want to see a right-ward turn in politics. The question is - are they looking for Right wing parties to actually implement their platforms or are they being used to steer the debate and take centrist parties toward the Right? The documentary points to this happening but doesn't probe the question that it might have actual support. Not only has the CDU under Merz turned to the Right, Ursula von der Leyen the EC president has as well.

It's a way to push policies without having to openly adopt them - let the provocateurs do it. In other cases, the strategy might be to let them into government. It's like a relief valve for populist impulse but once in power they have to govern and inevitably turn toward the centre. Meloni is a case in point. On the Left we saw something like this with Syriza under Alex Tsipras. The radical left coalition (as it's known) was elected to run Greece in the aftermath of the financial and migrant crisis. Tsipras pledged to fight austerity - but instead chose to intensify it. His tenure was marked more by a centre-right posture, a complete betrayal of his campaign platform.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is basically a fascistic party and while it contains Nazi sympathizers and has ties to Neo-Nazi elements, it's not technically a Nazi polity. This should not give anyone any comfort. Its politicians are slippery - Krah and Höcke are serpents and outright fascists, but we could say the same about plenty of people surrounding Trump.

The fears expressed by some of the interviewees are legitimate and yet the documentary overall is a bit off. The journalism is biased and yet I'm also certain they are unable to understand that.

From a Christian standpoint the situation is appalling as the AfD is being openly endorsed by Evangelicals and others connected with the Christian Right - including not a few in Confessionalist circles. This is a sad state of affairs but again because of years of Right-wing propaganda, these same people are unable to discern the difference between a fascist and a communist or between the right and the left. We have people talking about the 'woke right' and other such nonsense. In the meantime fascism has become the dominant ideology within the GOP and large sections of the Christian Right.

The documentary rightly identified 2015 and the migrant crisis as the turning point but (as expected) chose to ignore the sources of the crisis as well as the larger context for resurgent nationalism. It's not just about immigration. Attitudes toward the EU had already soured before 2010. There are additional problems in Germany related to reunification in 1990. There's anger toward immigrants but also toward Brussels and yet this fact is dividing the Right - as well as how Russia is viewed.

It's complicated, but for a 90-minute documentary, it seemed like the wasted a lot of time. Again, I recommend it. Watch it and let it wash over you, but then reflect on it. Don't just accept the messaging and understand that they (deliberately it would seem) chose to dodge some big questions connected to these issues.