AfD party members cast their votes at a party convention to choose candidates for upcoming European elections, in Magdeburg, Germany.
2025 Photo Contest - Europe - Stories

"Democracy Dies in Darkness"

Photographer

Rafael Heygster

Der Spiegel
29 July, 2023

AfD party members cast their votes at a party convention to choose candidates for upcoming European elections, in Magdeburg, Germany.

Germany’s nationalist political party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), made major gains in 2024, doubling its support to achieve 20.8% of the vote in the 2025 national elections. This comes at a time when populist parties are gaining ground across Europe, in countries such as France, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Italy.

In 2024, the photographer attended AfD rallies to examine and question the way the party presents itself. Far-right and populist political groups, professing a mistrust of mainstream media, are proving adept at using new media to spread their ideologies. Opponents accuse them of amplifying misinformation and fake news, spreading division and hatred, and endangering democracy.

The AfD has moved further to the right over the years, accused of racism, Islamophobia, and extremism. The Thuringia leader of the party, Björn Höcke, has twice been fined for using a Nazi-era slogan, and Der Spiegel points out that the party is increasingly open about its rejection of democratic principles.

The party styles itself as the “party of the little people”, as anti-establishment, and supporting the marginalized. But it is also gaining a broader base by tapping into disillusionment with politicians, a distrust of mainstream media, and antagonism to immigrants. Many young men, in particular, are turning to the right. Pew Research Center in 2024 found that 26% of German men had positive views of the AfD compared to 11% of women. On a wider scale, a 2024 European Election Study revealed that 60% of young men under 30 in EU countries would consider voting for the far right – much higher than the share among women.  However, the rise of the AfD has also seen widespread protests in opposition of the party. More than four million people joined demonstrations against the far right in Germany in 2024.



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Rafael Heygster
About the photographer

Rafael Heygster (b. 1990) is a freelance photographer based in Hannover, Germany whose work focu­ses on the relationship between individuals and their social, cultural and ecological environment. From 2010 to 2015 he stu­died cultural anthropology and political sciences at the Uni­ver­sity of Hamburg...

Read the full biography
Technical information
Shutter Speed

1/125

ISO

125

Camera

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

Jury comment

The jury felt this story was particularly significant in capturing the rise of populism in Germany and the broader shifts in politics that claim to uphold democracy while undermining it. The photographer achieves a rarity in political photography— subtly unmasking the carefully crafted image of politicians attempting to conceal their motives. Each image contains an off-kilter element, disrupting the surface and exposing the performative nature of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Judging just days before the German general elections, with the AfD positioned as the second runner-up, the jury felt this work was both timely and essential.