How the AfD copied the SVP's playbook to win over voters

The German AfD party has adopted a strategy from Switzerland's SVP party by linking everyday concerns like migration, rents, and purchasing power into a single narrative to win elections, according to Swiss political scientist Claude Longchamp. This approach helped the AfD more than double its result in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD's "Vision 2026" campaign expanded beyond migration to include schools, police funding, and economic deregulation, despite exceeding state competencies. Polling shows 30 percent now trust the AfD on economic matters, up from 8 percent in 2021, with 54 percent viewing the party as closer to citizens' concerns than rivals. Longchamp notes that parties succeed by creatively connecting multiple public worries, as the SVP does with EU treaties, wages, and neutrality. The SVP could exceed 30 percent in Switzerland's 2027 national elections, though it already holds government power unlike the AfD.