This is Germany. Not sure how familiar you are with 20th century German history but no, these folks aren't conservative in any sense.
What precisely are the AFD policies or proposals that you characterize as not conservative?
Before WWII the nazis and the communists were both considered by americans to be leftists parties. the communists were further left than the nazis. but they were both considered to be two peas in a pod.
This changed during the McCarthy period when a Frankfurt School writer characterized the nazis as rightists or conservatives. The NY Times picked up the reference and echoed that nazis were conservatives.
That set the mold. For decades no self respecting jew could be republican or conservative—as that associated them with nazis.
But it was all a language game.
Before WWII the nazis and the communists were both considered by americans to be leftists parties. the communists were further left than the nazis. but they were both considered to be two peas in a pod.
This changed during the McCarthy period when a Frankfurt School writer characterized the nazis as rightists or conservatives. The NY Times picked up the reference and echoed that nazis were conservatives.
That set the mold. For decades no self respecting jew could be republican or conservative—as that associated them with nazis.
But it was all a language game.
I doubt that the AFD proposes anything as crazy as Angela Merkel’s immigration policies. It seems to some people that German feelings of guilt over NAZI crimes may lie behind their lengthy acquiescence to Merkel’s suicidal policies.