A group of right-wing parties in the European Parliament voted on May 23 to exclude one of its members: Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The AfD has been soaring in popularity, but recent scandals have revealed the extreme nature of some of its members, casting a dark shadow over the whole party.

“The Bureau of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament has decided today to exclude the German delegation, AfD, with immediate effect,” read the statement that may seal the AfD’s future in the European Parliament. The AfD stands isolated for being too extreme.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the AfD’s lead candidate in the European elections, Maximilian Krah, claimed that not all members of the SS were criminals. “I will never say that everyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal,” he said. “There was certainly a high percentage of criminals, but not all of them were criminals.”

This, after a series of other scandals, caused France’s populist leader Marine Le Pen to break with the AfD on May 21.

The SS was responsible for unspeakable evil in World War ii, much of which brought suffering on France. But the AfD has made similar statements for years with the goal of eradicating Germany’s feeling of collective guilt.

In January 2017, one of the AfD’s most influential leaders, Björn Höcke, told a cheering crowd that Germany should be proud of its history and make a “180-degree reversal on the politics of remembrance.”

“German history is handled as rotten and made to look ridiculous,” he said, lamenting that Germans are “the only people in the world to plant a monument of shame in the heart of their capital.” The crowd responded enthusiastically, shouting: “Deutschland! Deutschland!”

Also in 2017, AfD leader Alexander Gauland said, “If the French are rightly proud of their emperor and the Britons of Nelson and Churchill, we have the right to be proud of the achievements of the German soldiers in two world wars.” In 2018, he claimed that “Hitler and the Nazis are just a speck of bird [muck] in over a thousand years of successful German history.”

During a 2021 campaign event, Höcke used the slogan “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany). This slogan was used by the militant wing of Hitler’s Nazi party—the Sturmabteilung (SA)—and is prohibited in Germany today. Höcke was convicted and fined €13,000 (us$14,000) by a German court this month.

Despite (or because of) this, the AfD has been soaring in Germany. But recently, the party started to lose popularity. An alleged secret meeting about deporting immigrants—including German citizens with a migration background—sparked media outrage followed by nationwide protests against the AfD. Then came accusations of party members working for Russia and China. Just before the European elections, the AfD has had one scandal after another.

This is reflected in the polls. In February, the AfD was Germany’s second-strongest party with 22 percent support; today, it stands around 15 percent.

Part of the reason for its past popularity was the nation-destroying policies of the established parties. Similar to other Western nations, corrupt politicians have worked against the well-being of their own people.

The AfD’s proposed solution: patriotism.

There is nothing wrong with patriotism for one’s country. In fact, no nation can survive without it. But the AfD is celebrating the dark and ugly periods in German history. This will be key to whether the party survives the scandals or not.

To understand the full extent of the AfD’s sudden rise and the shift in German thinking, we have to understand the malicious planning behind it.

In “A Billionaire Backer and the Murky Finances of the AfD,” Der Spiegel highlighted the man who helped the AfD from its beginning: billionaire August von Finck Jr. As Spiegel noted, “Finck’s father, August Sr., was a Hitler admirer and provided financial backing to the Nazis.”

The family has progressed from backing one Nazi party to another.

This is even more concerning if you consider that during the so-called Red House meeting in 1944, senior Nazis told industry representatives to “prepare themselves to finance the Nazi Party, which would be forced to go underground ….”

Over the years, the Finck family and other industrialists—who inherited their riches from Germany’s darkest hour—financed various politicians and movements. We must understand their goal.

On May 9, 1945, the late Herbert W. Armstrong warned:

We don’t understand German thoroughness. From the very start of World War ii, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War iii! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone underground. … Now a Nazi underground is methodically planned. They plan to come back and to win on the third try.

In his recent cover story, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry stated that the AfD “shares great similarities with the Nazi Party and is equally disruptive of democracy.” Perhaps the AfD will recover from the recent scandals and continue to play a significant role in German politics and the rise of the Nazi underground. But even if it doesn’t, it has laid the groundwork for a specific Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

Daniel 8:23, Daniel 11:21, Revelation 17 and other passages reveal that an end-time leader will rise in Germany to lead a European conglomerate. Mr. Armstrong believed this prophecy could be fulfilled by Franz Josef Strauss. That’s why Mr. Flurry has closely watched individuals from the same political party, particularly Edmund Stoiber and Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. The Finck family and other industrialists have shared connections with and funded the endeavors of all three individuals. (Learn more in “The Nazi Billionaire Families and German Politics.”)

Europe is in a crisis and crying out for a savior. For many, the AfD is too extreme to provide such a savior. This sets the stage for a strong leader to emerge by “flatteries” (Daniel 11:21).

Mr. Flurry explains these prophecies in detail in his free booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent.