# Harvard Panel Dissects the AfD's Breakthrough Year, and Why the Party Isn't Moderating as It Grows > A panel of German journalists and researchers at Harvard's Center for European Studies walked through the AfD's 2026 gains, from its 150 Bundestag seats to a historic speaker post in Saxony-Anhalt, and argued the party's refusal to soften its positions sets it apart from past insurgent movements in German politics. - Source: Berlin Today - Canonical URL: https://berlintoday.eu/article/harvard-panel-dissects-the-afd-s-breakthrough-year-and-why-the-party-isn-t-moderating-as-it-grows - Author: Doug Brown - Section: Politics - Published: 2026-10-27T20:29:02.535Z - Updated: 2026-10-27T20:29:02.535Z - Tags: Germany, AfD, Bundestag, far right, Harvard, Saxony-Anhalt, political polarization, eastern Germany --- A panel convened by Harvard's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies took stock of what one speaker called the AfD's breakthrough year, tracing how Germany's far-right party went from a fringe protest movement to the country's second-largest party and largest opposition bloc in the Bundestag. The discussion, moderated by Tufts political science professor David Art, brought together Cerstin Gammelin, spokeswoman for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Fabio Ellger, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center, and Anna Mayr, a political correspondent for Die Zeit. ## The Numbers Behind the Headlines The AfD now holds 150 of the Bundestag's 630 seats, and Ellger pointed to gains in six of the eight state elections examined so far in 2026 as evidence the party's rise isn't confined to one region or one election cycle. October brought a symbolic milestone too: an AfD member was elected to a parliamentary speaker post in Saxony-Anhalt, the first far-right party member to hold such a position in Germany since World War II. ## A Party That Refuses to Soften Much of the panel's analysis centered on a pattern panelists said sets the AfD apart from earlier insurgent parties in German politics: rather than moderating its positions as it grows, the party has largely held its line even as its vote share climbs. Speakers noted the AfD operates without the constraints that come from governing coalitions or deep local political ties, freeing it to stay ideologically consistent in ways that typically pull growing parties toward the center. Panelists also raised a more uncomfortable possibility: that the deliberate political isolation of the AfD by mainstream parties, often described in Germany as a firewall, may be paradoxically reinforcing loyalty among the party's existing supporters rather than curbing its growth. ## Where the Support Is Strongest, and Why The party's strength remains concentrated in eastern Germany, which panelists linked to persistent wealth disparities between east and west, demographic shifts, and a broader sense of underrepresentation in national politics that has lingered since reunification. Germany's domestic intelligence service has classified the AfD as right-wing extremist, though a court has paused that designation, a legal tug-of-war that has become its own recurring storyline in German politics. Speakers also pointed to a slower-moving but important ingredient: rising polarization appears to be reshaping how citizens relate to one another, with voting for the AfD becoming an increasingly normalized choice rather than a taboo one, even as the party's platform remains largely unchanged from its earlier, more marginal years. ## Why It Matters The panel's central argument, that the AfD's growth has come without the moderation that typically accompanies a party's rise, cuts against the assumption that electoral success naturally pulls insurgent movements toward the political center. If that pattern holds, mainstream German parties may be facing a dynamic with no obvious historical playbook to draw on. --- Originally published by Berlin Today. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://berlintoday.eu/article/harvard-panel-dissects-the-afd-s-breakthrough-year-and-why-the-party-isn-t-moderating-as-it-grows.