German magazine spreads word of anti-immigrant party

BERLIN: With headlines like "Asylum Chaos", a German magazine is spreading the views of an anti-immigrant party that has vaulted into three state legislatures due to voter anger over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy towards refugees.

Monthly magazine Compact was founded five years ago but its profile has risen markedly since the influx of 1.1 million asylum-seekers last year that has spurred an electoral surge of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Compact offers a taste of the ideology behind the AfD, which denies accusations by establishment centre-left and centre-right politicians and the media that it harbours members with xenophobic and anti-democratic views.

Some of its recent headlines include Asylum Chaos, Dictatorship Merkel, Vote Her Out, The Better Chancellor - a reference to AfD co-leader Frauke Petry, and Fair Game Woman, an allusion to sexual assaults by North African migrants.

Compact’s February edition landed two policemen in hot water after a citizen posted a picture online showing a copy on the dashboard of a police van and asking whether this showed officers were no longer politically neutral.

Police responded on Twitter: "No, we are of course non-partisan! Nevertheless, sorry." A police spokeswoman said the two officers in question had been transferred to other duties for six months.

Compact editor-in-chief Juergen Elsaesser, an outspoken fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin, argues that Petry would make a better chancellor than Merkel for a simple reason: "In contrast to ‘Mutti’, Petry has real children, four in fact."