An increasing number of working men and women, almost half of the working population, that is, the employed population who do physical work, are now voting for the Alternative for Germany party. Despite the fact that the program of this party does not really benefit them
The regional elections in Rhineland-Palatinate were a success for Alternative for Germany (AfD). With 19,5 percent of the votes won, she managed to more than double her result compared to the elections five years ago.
At the same time, it even became the most popular party among the workers, 39 percent of them voted for that partially far-right party, writes Deutsche Welle.
It is becoming a trend in Germany, recently more and more workers choose AfD. In the party's strongholds in eastern Germany, it now receives almost half of the votes of workers, i.e. the employed population who perform manual labor. Thus, they become an important factor in the rise of the controversial party.
According to experts, there is only one reason why so many workers vote for the AfD: the fear of losing their jobs. "AfD supports and inflames the concerns that exist among the working class," communication expert Frank Bretschneider from the University of Hohenheim said in an interview with the public service SWR.
The multiple crises caused by wars, climate change and artificial intelligence are becoming an endurance test for a democratic society – and this is not only true for Germany.
Workers, faced with crises, apparently feel that they are represented by established parties less and less. In Germany, they have traditionally voted for the Social Democrats (SPD), one of the oldest labor parties in the world. But it seems her time has passed. SPD has been - with short breaks - in a downward trend for years.
An analysis of the election results in Rhineland-Palatinate, carried out by the public opinion research institute Infratest dimap, showed that 71 percent of voters agree with the statement: "The SPD is no longer clearly on the side of the workers today."
AfD is working to fill that gap. The party successfully uses clichés, such as those by which officials of other parties are alienated from the people, says Frank Bretschneider. AfD, for example he says: "They up there have no idea about your reality in life. And we do." Bretschneider concludes: "With that story, they partially succeed."
Interestingly, topics such as the economy or social security actually play a secondary role for workers when deciding to vote for the AfD: they do not consider the party competent when it comes to economic policy, social justice and job creation. This is also shown by optional analyzes of Infratest dimaps.
For those voters, asylum policy and the attitude towards refugees, as well as the fight against crime, are much more important. These are the dominant themes in the election campaigns of the AfD, a party that constantly links topics such as welfare and affordable rents to migration. The party presents immigrants as a threat to the standard of living of Germans and thus points to people's fears of a decline in their existence.
At the same time, economists and economic studies show the exact opposite and understand immigration as an important contribution to the preservation of German welfare society. The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in an analysis from 2025 comes to the conclusion that greater migration represents a huge potential for strong growth of the German economy.
What, then, does the Alternative for Germany offer the insecure German workforce in its election programs? Little of it. At least that's what the president of the DIW institute, Marcel Fracher, thinks. In his analysis, he concluded as early as 2023: the main losers of the AfD's policy would be their own voters.
According to Fracher, that party advocates an "extremely neoliberal economic and financial policy" that primarily plans relief for those with the highest incomes and wants to reduce the role of the state. "In the category of social policy, no party in the Bundestag wants bigger cuts in social benefits than the AfD," analyzes Fracher.
At the same time, the party seeks closeness with workers in Germany and supports the activities of the AfD-friendly Centrum trade union. He has been trying to get into the workers' councils of the big German car concerns for years. Works councils in Germany are very important. They represent the interests of employees, and their voices carry a lot of weight in public discussions.
The union Centrum wants to profile itself as a right-wing alternative to the traditionally more left-wing industrial union IG Metal. Although the AfD's electoral successes might suggest otherwise, those union efforts have so far met with only moderate success. Admittedly, Centrum managed to enter the workers' councils in certain factories of Mercedes or Volkswagen, but in the current elections for the workers' councils in Germany, they do not have significant success so far. The big winner remains IG Metal.
In the fight for the votes of the workers, sociologist Klaus Der calls, first of all, on the political left to identify itself more strongly with the reality of the working class. "I think the percentage of workers whose support can be recovered is not small at all," said Derr in an interview with Berlin's Tageskeitung newspaper. Democratic parties should, he says, dedicate themselves to the workers.
However, it is also a fact that in Germany fewer and fewer workers identify with their companies, even in traditional large concerns such as Volkswagen and Mercedes. "But there is something that people everywhere identify with - like their homeland," Derr says. That's why he tells the left-wing parties that they should take the term "homeland" away from the Alternative for Germany.
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