AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD for short, is leading the polls ahead of state elections in the part of the country once known as East Germany. With voters living in algorithm-driven echo chambers, an unlikely cohort of women is reaching out to the party's supporters in a bid to revive the lost art of debate and change minds, as Esme Nicholson reports.
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ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE: It's Saturday in the cathedral city of Erfurt. A group of women in their 70s have gathered on a medieval market square, holding up signs that read (speaking German), or Grandmas Against the Far Right. They are part of a nationwide movement of retired women who've had it with hatred.
Seventy-six-year-old Gabriele Wolke-Rebhan co-founded the local chapter out of sheer worry. She says, this region is where the Nazis first seized power, and now it's where Bjorn Hocke - considered the far-right AfD party's most extreme figure - is running to become the next state governor.
GABRIELE WOLKE-REBHAN: (Through interpreter) Hitler happened because people stood silently by. If I stay silent now, I'm no better than my parents in the 1930s.
NICHOLSON: Wolke-Rebhan says she's not just here to speak up but to listen as well. She wants to understand why 1 in 3 people here are planning to vote AfD, even though Germany's domestic intelligence agency has the party under surveillance for suspected anticonstitutional activities. She says, not everybody is willing to stop and chat.
WOLKE-REBHAN: (Through interpreter) The far right ridicule us and think we're just silly old women. What they don't seem to understand is that women become unflappable with age. It's a mistake to underestimate us.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
NICHOLSON: One of the grandmas is talking to a well-dressed man in his 70s. After a couple of minutes, he loses his temper and walks off, cursing at her. Wolke-Rebhan takes a deep breath and says, they refuse to write anyone off as deplorable, even if it's tough at times.
WOLKE-REBHAN: (Through interpreter) We get a lot of encouragement from passersby, but we also get a lot of abuse. It's men of my generation who are the worst, really below the belt. And they're retirees, many of them living pretty comfortable lives.
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NICHOLSON: At the nearby farmers market, 79-year-old Rudi is doing his weekly shop, picking through organic summer produce. The softly spoken retired engineer avoids the grandmas. He says no amount of chatting will change his mind.
RUDI: (Through interpreter) I'm voting AfD. It's the only party that cares about us, the people who have always lived here. Right now, the immigrants rule. They come first. The benefits they get are better than the hourly wages of most Germans in this part of the country.
NICHOLSON: Rudi, who wouldn't give his full name but was eager to talk, insists that AfD voters are given a bad rap.
RUDI: (Through interpreter) I've read what the mainstream media writes about us. It's all lies. I've stopped reading it.
NICHOLSON: He says, he now gets his news from Telegram and YouTube. Rudi is exactly the kind of voter Marc Rohlig, a reporter for Der Spiegel, is trying to reach. Rohlig grew up in the region and now writes about it. He says, not all AfD voters have stopped reading his articles.
MARC ROHLIG: (Through interpreter) I used to receive anonymous threats, but people have become more brazen and now send me hate mail from their work addresses, cell number included. So I've started calling them back.
NICHOLSON: Rohlig says, this takes his hate mailers by surprise.
ROHLIG: (Through interpreter) Confronting people takes the sting out of their hatred. Most of the time, we find a way to talk to each other in a civil manner and often end up chatting about personal issues and everyday worries.
NICHOLSON: But back in Erfurt, the performative outrage of social media spills over onto the streets as another passerby spouts abuse at the grandmas.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
NICHOLSON: A recent study suggests that voting for the AfD negatively impacts mental health. It found that a year after joining the party, the majority of respondents reported a deterioration in their well-being...
(LAUGHTER)
NICHOLSON: ...Something that can't be said for the Grandmas Against the Far Right, who, despite their worries, seem pretty happy with democracy. After all, here in former East Germany, they remember what it's like to live without it. For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Erfurt.
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