If a human being is under a threat of an infectious disease, he will act or behave in ways to

reduce that threat to protect himself---a defense mechanism of the body called behavioral
immune response (BIR). Similarly, the German public turn on its defense mechanism whenever
encountering a threat. The existence of Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) itself, formally
founded in April 2013, is a manifestation of the Germans defense mechanism to the threat of
unfair EU policies---a protest against the Christian-Liberal governments bailouts of indebted EU
member states like Greece and the Eurozone which was composed of conservative (threatened)
economists, academicians, professors, and businessmen led by Prof. Bernd Lucke and Alexander
Gauland (Lewandowsky, 2014; Chase, 2017). The AfDs performance in 2013 elections only
gained 4% of votes which did not even reach the 5% vote quota to gain seats in parliament but in
2014 it received an election breakthrough but mostly with single-digit percentage votes (Chase,
2017). This election breakthrough was attributed to the beginning of migrant surge in Germany
last 2014 (BBC News, 2016) and the party started to shift its focus and adopt an anti-immigrant
stance dividing the AfD between two directions namely, Anti-EU and Anti-immigrant
(Kirschbaum, 2015). In 2015, the party still adopted its original anti-EU stance but shifted its
priorities to an anti-immigrant stance as AfDs leadership was given to Frauke Petry and ousted
its former leader Prof. Bernd Lucke (BBC News, 2016). However, the issue of the migrant surge
is not that salient in the minds of voters during those times. Not until Chancellor Angela Merkel
opens the border of Germany for migrants seeking refuge in Europe which mostly came from the
Middle East, specifically from war-torn Syria last 2015 as a response after a picture of dead
Syrian toddler who was washed up on a beach in Turkey went viral. Because of this decision, the
world praised her and even named her as Times Magazine Person of the Year 2015 (Ensor,
2016; Glenza, 2015). As migrants surge to enter Europe, Germans gave them a warm welcome
(Harrison, et al, 2015) but its welcome culture started to fade as number of refugees continue to
arrive in Germany reaching more than a million (Noack, 2016). This signals the AfD of the
Germans priority issue--the timely, newsworthy, and obviously salient migrant issue as many
Germans began to see massive influx of refugees as a threat to their economic security (Noack,
2016). A year later (2016) of Germanys opening of borders, there are reports of several terror
attacks, sexual assaults, and attacks on Germans which are allegedly committed by some
refugees (BBC News, 2016). These results to 66 percent of Germans afraid of becoming victims
of terror attacks (Deacon, 2017). AfD ride on the waves of the present increasing anti-immigrant
sentiments of the public and further stir it up and at the height of the peoples sentiments, they
project themselves as the cure to reduce the threats of terrorism and crime by proposing strict
immigration policies. With this, AfD are likely to be perceived as concerned and sincere
(Ansolabehere, et al, 1994; Foumier, et al, 2003; as cited by Kluver, et al, 2016). Moreover,
AfDs von Storch even stated that there is a direct connection between crime and terrorist
attacks with the rise of migrants in the country (Edmunds, 2016). They blamed Merkels
immigration policy as the cause of these threats exposing the incumbents policies failure
(Schwartz, 2016) which further increase their leverage in the election. In conclusion, the rise of
threats among the Germans brought the rise of the AfD.

Count: 596

References:

Journal Articles

Kluver, H. and Inaki Sagarzazu (2016) Setting the Agenda or Responding to Voters? Political
Parties, Voters, and Issue Attention, West European Politics, 39(2), 380-398, Available from
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fwep20 or DOI: 10.1080/01402382.2015.1101295 [Accessed 1st
March 2017]

News Articles
Chase, J. (2017) 10 things you need to know about AfD. Deutsch Welle. Available from
http://www.dw.com/en/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-afd/a-37208199 [accessed 1st
March 2017]

BBC News (2016) What does Alternative for Germany (AfD) want? BBC News, available
from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37274201 [Accessed 1st March 2017]

Kirschbaum, E. (2015) Power struggle rips open Germanys Eurosceptic AfD party. Reuters.
Available from https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-politics-eurosceptics-
idUKKBN0KC0II20150103 [Accessed 1st March 2017]

Ensor, J. (2016) Photo of my dead son has changed nothing, says father of drowned Syrian
refugee boy Alan Kurdi. The Telegraph. Available from
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says-father-of-drowned/ [Accessed 1st March 2017]

Glenza, J. (2015) Angela Merkel named Times Person of the Year-the first woman since
1986. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/09/angela-merkel-time-
magazine-person-of-the-year-2015 [Accessed 1st March 2017]

Harrison, E., Kingsley, P., and McVeigh, T. (2015) Cheering German crowds greet refugees
after long trek from Budapest to Munich. The Guardian. Available from
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/05/refugee-crisis-warm-welcome-for-people-
bussed-from-budapest [Accessed 1st March 2017]

Noack, R. (2016) Germany welcomed more than 1 million refugees in 2015. Now, the
country is searching for its soul. The Washington Post. Available from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/04/germany-welcomed-
more-than-1-million-refugees-in-2015-now-the-country-is-searching-for-its-soul/?
utm_term=.5366c244e873 [Accessed 1st March 2017]

BBC News (2016) Germany attacks: What is going on? BBC News. Available from
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36882445 [Accessed 1st March 2017]

Edmunds, D. (2016) AfD MEP calls for Merkel to be investigated over migrant deaths.
Breitbart. Available from http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/11/21/afd-mep-migrant-
drownings-med-merkels-asylum-policy/ [Accessed 1st March 2017]

Schwartz, Y. (2016) Germanys Right-Wing AfD Party Blames Merkels Immigration Policy
for Berlin Attack. NBC News. Available from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/berlin-
truck-attack/germany-s-right-wing-afd-party-blames-merkel-s-immigration-n699271
[Accessed 1st March 2017]

Deacon, L. (2017) Two thirds of Germans Fear becoming victims of terror attacks. Breitbart.
Available from http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/02/25/two-thirds-germans-fear-
becoming-victim-terror-attack/ [Accessed 1st March 2017]