AfD | AfD puts social work under pressure

Even before their election victory in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an influential player in the Schwerin parliament: the extreme right-wing AfD, here during the election campaign in Boizenburg Photo: dpa/Jens Büttner Berlin. The AfD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia uses parliamentary instruments of its state parliamentary groups, in particular numerous small inquiries, to influence the social sector and social work in the two federal states. Researchers from Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences and the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ) Jena come to this conclusion in a new study.

The parliamentary submissions are particularly often aimed at the areas of migration and flight, child and youth welfare, equality, gender diversity as well as democracy and anti-discrimination work. It's not just about classic opposition work, "but about strategies that aim to delegitimize, create uncertainty and long-term weakening of public and civil society infrastructure in education and social services," writes the research team in the study funded by the trade union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation.

The AfD's activities in this area are very relevant for several reasons, the researchers emphasize: Firstly, social work is not only one of the largest professional groups in Germany, but it also has a direct influence on social cohesion. Secondly, the field of social work is often characterized by temporary project funding, scarce resources and dependencies. »If sponsors, projects or individual areas of work are repeatedly subject to parliamentary scrutiny, this can cause uncertainty. “Skilled workers and organizations must expect that their work, their funding or their public positions will be used politically against them,” write the scientists. Thirdly, it can be observed that extreme right-wing actors are trying to fill infrastructural gaps in the social sector with their own activities, especially in rural areas.

For publication, the scientists evaluated 822 parliamentary documents from the period between July 2020 and June 2025 - including small inquiries, motions and draft laws as well as press releases that the AfD factions submitted or published in the parliaments of the two federal states.

The scientists note that the central findings of their study are: The AfD uses parliamentary resources specifically to put social work projects, providers and institutions under pressure. Recurring strategies include detailed inquiries into personnel, financial and organizational information, public questioning of political neutrality and calls for the reduction or elimination of public funding.

At the same time, the AfD takes up central technical terms such as “child welfare” or “discrimination” and reinterprets them. Parliamentary activities not only served to obtain information or legislate, but also to publicly delegitimize people who worked in the areas under investigation.

In Thuringia, according to the authors of the study, parliamentary activities are more focused on high-profile, “culture-war” disputes. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the procedure appears to be less confrontational. It is characterized by a continuous and more professional parliamentary approach to socio-political issues.

From their research results, the authors derive recommendations for action for administration, politics and social work providers. They recommend that authorities be made more aware of the strategic use of parliamentary questions and the careful handling of personal and other sensitive data. They also recommend setting up permanently funded advisory and support structures “for dealing with parliamentary attacks” and continuous monitoring of such activities. For social work itself, the researchers recommend “not treating the handling of parliamentary attacks as an individual problem for individual institutions, but rather developing institutional counter-strategies.” nd

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