
Inside the AfD: How Germany's Far-Right Populist Party Operates
DW's investigative team goes behind the public image of Alternative for Germany, the party that has built support by campaigning against immigration and the political establishment. Reporters travel to a village in southwestern Germany where residents describe targeted intimidation linked to local AfD networks, and former members and insiders explain how the party handles internal dissent, labeling critics as troublemakers and pushing them out rather than engaging with them. The film traces how these local structures connect to the party's broader strategy and how disputes inside AfD chapters have spilled into open conflict within small communities. Interviews with party members, defectors, and affected residents build a picture of an organization that presents a disciplined, respectable front nationally while enforcing conformity and marginalizing opponents at the grassroots level. The documentary treats southwestern Germany as a case study for tactics the filmmakers argue are repeated in communities across the country, using on-the-ground testimony rather than studio commentary to make its case.