The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has long stoked anti-immigration sentiment, but it’s making an exception for many Russian-speaking migrants from the former Soviet Union.
This was evident on a recent Tuesday, when AfD politicians hosted a meeting in the German parliament to shed light on the conditions facing so-called Russlanddeutschen, or Russian Germans — ethnic Germans from the post-Soviet space who settled in Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The event illustrated the AfD’s ever-more-focused efforts to appeal to an estimated 5 million immigrants in Germany who hail from the former Soviet Union, about half of whom are Russian Germans. Though Russian-speakers in Germany are by no means a singular bloc — and the group increasingly includes many Ukrainians and Russian dissidents who are repelled by the AfD’s Kremlin-friendly stances — their political power in Germany is broadly set to grow amid continuing migration from former Soviet states and the easing of German citizenship rules.
That helps explain why, a year ahead of a federal election and with current polls putting the AfD in second place, politicians in the party are making a concerted effort to reach Russian speakers — particularly Russian Germans, also referred to in Germany as “late resettlers.” During the parliamentary group meeting, AfD politicians called for raising pension payments for Russian Germans, and for removing obstacles for further immigration from Russia.
Posted by John3262005