The AfD opposes subsidies in the energy market, claiming that they damage Germany's competitiveness. In 2014, the Baden-Württemberg AfD voted against a plan to bring more teaching about homosexuality into the school curriculum, and the official party manifesto makes a vehement case against what it calls "gender mainstreaming," by which it means policies that undermine "traditional gender roles." The Baden-Württemberg AfD's manifesto even suggested that state broadcasters should be made to "present marriage and family in a positive way."ĭeputy leader Beatrix von Storch has made these issues her own within the party, speaking out against abortion, against same-sex marriage, and against what she calls the "sexualization of society." She declared her opposition to a government campaign promoting the use of condoms, saying the campaign should have encouraged abstinence instead.Ĥ) It's skeptical of climate change and against Germany's energy transitionījörn Höcke has occasionally offered overtly racist theoriesĪ less-discussed element of the AfD's program is its vehement opposition to the Renewable Energy Act, introduced in 2000 and renewed in 2014 to regulate and subsidize Germany's transition to renewables. One of the main planks of its party program is promoting the traditional family. Though the AfD's latest successes and its rise to double digits in national polls around the country (putting it neck and neck with the Greens and the Left) undoubtedly have to do with dissatisfaction with Angela Merkel's refugee policies, the party is also making a deliberate effort to poach the chancellor's Christian conservative base. The AfD'S response was swift: "We have no overlaps with the NPD whatsoever."ģ) Promoting Christianity and traditional families
The AfD's relationship with the far-right was underlined in March, when the the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) called on voters in the regional election to use one of their two preferences for the AfD.
The split was brought about by an increasing influx of new members - many of whom were sympathetic to the anti-"Islamization" movement PEGIDA.įormer leader Bernd Lucke was pushed out by the party's extremist wing Founded just over three years ago by a group of disgruntled economists who wanted to dismantle the eurozone and prevent the bailing out of Greece, the party has deftly switched policies to suit the next big "crisis" preoccupying the German media: the refugees from the Middle East who began arriving in large numbers last year.Īfter steadily mounting internal pressure in the first half of 2015, the ideological switch was flicked in July 2015, when co-founder and leader Bernd Lucke, a 53-year-old economics professor, was ousted by current leader Frauke Petry. The AfD has gone through quite a mutation in its short life. Here are five essential points to understanding the AfD:
It’s kind of like if the TV show “24” merged with “Saving Private Ryan.” It covers the first 24 hours of D-Day in 12 episodes, sharing stories from fascinating, little-known figures like Guillaume Mercader, a French cyclist spy behind enemy lines, and Axis Sally, an umbrella term for the traitors who broadcast for the Nazis.The anti-immigrant platform presented by Alternative for Germany (AfD) allowed the party to break into municipal and state legislatures across the country this spring. Season 3 of Unknown History is out now and it’s fantastic. In this article, it is lowercase when it is being used generically, and capitalized when it refers to the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II.įor more on the history of D-Day, I recommend you check out the Unknown History podcast from my Quick and Dirty Tips colleague Giles Milton. The “D” in “day” can be capitalized or lowercase. Now that you know what the “D” in D-Day stands for, you can probably guess what the “H” in H-Hour stands for. For instance, if you’re writing to a General about plans on the day that falls before “D-Day,” you’d write “D-1.” If you’re writing about a day that falls three days after “D-Day,” you’d write “D+3.”
Days that precede or follow D-Day are measured by their distance from D-Day with a plus or minus sign.
Should military intelligence fall into the wrong hands, the enemy will be none the wiser.Ī naming convention was formed for any dates surrounding D-Day. When you say “D-Day” you’re essentially saying “Day Day.” According to the National World War II Museum, the shorthand is used in place of an actual date for the sake of secrecy. The “D” actually stands for “day.” That’s right. So what’s the “D” stand for? Well, it’s a little anticlimactic.