German campaign network Campact has published guidance telling supporters how to react when friends, neighbours or relatives back Alternative for Germany (AfD). The advice appeared on the group’s blog on August 6.
The text drew on the reporting of journalist Sally Lisa Starken, who spent time among AfD supporters in eastern Germany. It listed rents and housing costs, pensions, school quality and public transport as the everyday concerns behind support for the party.
Inflation, climate and war were added as sources of anxiety about the future. Migration did not appear on the list.
It surfaced later in the text only as an example of how, in Campact’s account, the AfD redirected voter frustration towards minorities. Deportations were presented as a fix for problems they could not solve, the group said.
Campact urged readers to listen before judging and to question slogans by asking where they came from. Outrage alone could amplify a message rather than defuse it, according to the guidance.
The group cited conflict researcher Wilhelm Heitmeyer, who argues that many voters feel unseen by politicians and unable to shape decisions. Where people felt passed over, a political gap opened.
On crime, Campact said the promise to protect women by deporting criminal migrants was a false solution to a broader problem. It pointed to rising numbers of women killed in Germany and record levels of domestic violence.
The guidance closed by advising readers to join local associations, to talk to children about politics and to draw AfD voters back towards the democratic mainstream through patience and personal warmth.
Right-leaning German outlet Apollo News said the approach treated political opponents as a permanent educational project rather than as citizens holding a different view. It also questioned the omission of migration and fear of economic decline from the list of motives.
Campact, founded in 2004 and based in Verden, northern Germany, reported revenue of €24.6 million in 2024. It has previously targeted a business association that dropped its ban on contact with AfD representatives.
The guide was published a month before Saxony-Anhalt votes on September 6. Infratest dimap put the AfD at 41 per cent in the eastern state, against 24 per cent for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
National polls have placed the party above 26 per cent. Saxony-Anhalt’s domestic intelligence agency classifies the state AfD as proven right-wing extremist, a label the party rejects.
