Sidelined by rivals, Germany's far-right AfD bides time

BERLIN (AP) — Migration is a side issue in this year's German election campaign, but that hasn't stopped the country's biggest far-right party from trying to play it up.

“Cologne, Kassel or Konstanz can't cope with more Kabul,” Alternative for Germany declared on one of its election posters — a reference to the government's decision to take in Afghans who had worked for the German military or aid groups before the Taliban takeover.

Another, showing a retired couple embracing on a pier, read: “We'll share our pensions, but not with the whole world. Solidarity has its limits.”

The party rattled Germany's political establishment four years ago, when it came third in parliamentary elections after stoking anti-migrant sentiment over Chancellor Angela Merkel's 2015 decision to allow hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty into the country.

“The 2017 election was strongly influenced by refugee and migration politics,” said Hendrik Traeger, a political scientist at the University of Leipzig. “Alternative for Germany made that its core issue. This time it’s not among the top three election topics though.”

Current polls indicate that the party, known by its German acronym AfD, could struggle to hold the 12.6% share of the vote it got four years ago — though researchers note that respondents don't always admit in surveys that they'll vote for the party.

Still, even with a low two-digit result AfD could well pose a headache for other parties, forcing them to form larger, more cumbersome coalitions to secure a majority.

“Some constituencies might see a close race between the Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats and AfD,” said Traeger.

Small shifts in voting patterns of just a few hundred ballots could swing marginal constituencies in unexpected ways, making...