German Elections 2013: What Explains the Rise of the AfD?

Otherwise predictable campaign for German Federal Elections in September 2013 brought into light a brand new political party - Alternative für Deutschland (AFD). It is a conservative, euro-currency-skeptic political party founded in April 2013, five months before elections. At the polls the party gained 4.7 percent, three tenths shy of the 5 percent threshold required for getting into the parliament. Now, it wouldn’t be a noteworthy event if this happened in a more dynamic party systems like those found in Eastern European states, such as Poland or Lithuania. But Germany has long been known for having a relatively static party system. So, what explains the emergence and the relative success of a new political party in Germany over such a short period of time? Is it a work of agency or an opportunity window in the structure or both? Answering this question is especially timely in the wake of the 2014 EU Parliamentary elections, at which AFD arguably has a real chance of overcoming the threshold.