They call it a poll record – but it's more of a confession. Thirty-two percent for the AfD in Brandenburg, measured by Infratest dimap on behalf of the RBB, is not just a political signal, it is an alarm bell for the democratic fabric of a country currently trying to immunize itself against the right and failing at its own reflexes. Alice Weidel, parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag and undisputed leading figure of a party that prefers staging over explaining, celebrates this circumstance with a tweet that aims for everything – except precision. According to Weidel, the AfD unites more votes than the “government parties combined.” The problem? That’s false. And in a way that can either be described as deliberate deception or as frightening ignorance. Because Brandenburg is currently governed by a so-called Kenya coalition – SPD, CDU, and the Greens. If you add the values of the latest poll, you get: SPD 23% + CDU 14% + Greens 5% = 42%. The AfD stands at 32%. Even if, from a very twisted logic, one were to consider the CDU an opposition party – which it factually is not – it remains true: Weidel’s comparison only works if you generously ignore facts. And that is precisely the strategy. A party that constantly presents itself as a victim must inflate its own victories. Anything else would shatter the illusion.
The screenshots Weidel attaches stem from a hall of mirrors of belief. It's not reality being shown – it's the desire for something to be true. That many people feel left behind – no question. But whoever calls Habeck a “moron” in a Facebook comment, as seen in the image proudly shared by the AfD, or yells “media” as if every microphone were a weapon against their own opinion, has not only lost trust. But integrity. A political culture that relies on insult instead of argument deprives itself of any chance of engagement. What used to be pub talk is now a government perspective – at least in the minds of those who believe a state can renew itself through rage. Niehoff was stylized as a martyr of the common man – someone who “only spoke his mind.” In reality, he slandered others. And anyone who insults others shouldn’t be surprised by pushback. But that is exactly where the perfidious spin lies: The AfD frames every rejection as suppression, every measure as censorship, every responsibility as paternalism. And thus, a retiree banned from Facebook becomes a political key witness for freedom of speech. The fact that he is now being brought in front of the cameras with his daughter and wife is disturbing. It’s as if the image is meant to be immunized – against criticism, against doubt, against decency. The scene looks like a propaganda picture from a handbook of political provocation – personalized outrage, family intimacy, disabled child, big issue. But it’s not about inclusion – it’s about staging. Weidel knows that images are more powerful than arguments. And she uses them with surgical coldness.
The fact that these images were shared on the same day as the manipulatively titled polling poster is no coincidence. They belong together. Both tell the same story: We are the voice of the excluded, the overlooked, the supposedly unheard. But it’s not the people being excluded – it’s democracy being pushed to the margins. Because anyone who declares polls to be absolute truth holds the act of voting in contempt. And anyone who stylizes insults as civic courage holds the dignity of the counterpart in contempt. Niehoff is neither perpetrator nor victim – he is an instrument. His ban was not censorship, but consequence. Yet the AfD declares exactly this consequence to be an attack on freedom. The real scandal lies not just in the image, but in its effect. Weidel receives approval. Poll numbers rise. The tone becomes harsher. The gap between factual power and perceived strength grows. That the AfD would reach 32% in Brandenburg according to Infratest dimap does not mean they would govern. It only means their staging is effective. That fear, anger, and alienation work as political capital. And that the democratic reflex to counter this deception has become frighteningly weak.
What remains is a devastating image: a politician throwing around graphical half-truths while posing with a man who calls others “moron” – as if that were a virtue. Next to him, a daughter who deserves nothing of this political instrumentalization. And a country that watches as reality dissolves into rhetoric. Maybe that’s the AfD’s true victory – not in percentage points, but in the feeling of being stronger than they really are. Not because they’re right – but because they’re loud. And to those in Brandenburg who now truly believe the AfD will fix things: You haven’t understood a single thing. A country that has only just reunited after decades of division does not grow back together on its own. But it can very quickly fall apart again – through ignorance, through hatred, through shortsighted defiance – and it won’t just affect those you insult today.
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