A German bishop has sharply criticised the far-right AfD party for appropriating Christian language in pursuit of secular and exclusionary aims.
Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg condemned the party’s attempts to present itself under a “Christian guise” as hypocritical, arguing that such rhetoric masks a deeper disregard for human dignity.
Feige’s rebuke comes in response to the AfD’s increasing efforts to edge into the moral terrain historically claimed by the churches. He pointed out that one of the party’s leading figures, Beatrix von Storch, had taken part in a public anti-abortion march in Germany but had also called for refugees to be shot.
For Bishop Feige, that dual posture reveals a fundamental contradiction. “The AfD’s attempt to cloak its positions in Christian guise is hypocritical,” the bishop said. He added that the party treats the unborn as a cause to be championed while denying care for migrants, thereby divorcing consistency from conviction.
In recent weeks, the AfD has gone further in its provocations, attacking church leaders and suggesting the institutional Church lacks resolve. Bishop Feige pushed back, stating that the grievance is not the Church’s supposed moderateness on abortion but rather the hypocrisy of invoking a selective theology of national “regeneration” while dismissing universal human dignity.
He added that in eastern Germany, where abortion laws under the GDR became firmly established, the AfD is reluctant to campaign aggressively on the issue, suggesting that opportunism rather than principle drives its agenda.
Bishop Feige regards the looming regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as a “big test”. He warned against complacency and the illusion that the AfD is merely an eastern phenomenon, noting that in the last federal election, 70 per cent of AfD voters hailed from western Germany.
This is not the first time German bishops have found themselves in the crossfire. In recent months, senior AfD politicians have labelled Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the bishops’ conference, “sent by the devil,” prompting firm rebuttals from the German Bishops’ Conference and public debates on the limits of political engagement by church leaders.
In response, several dioceses have stripped members with AfD affiliations of Church offices. The Diocese of Trier, for instance, declared that individuals representing parties which derogate migrants or deny asylum rights are ineligible for parish posts.
(Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
