A German bishop has accused the far-right AfD party for exploiting Christian language to advance what he called “secular and exclusionary aims.” 

Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg made the remarks in response to the AfD’s growing attempts to appeal to religious voters ahead of upcoming regional elections. 

“The AfD’s attempt to cloak its positions in Christian guise is hypocritical,” Bishop Feige said. 

He highlighted AfD politician Beatrix von Storch’s participation in an anti-abortion march despite her previous calls for refugees to be shot and called it evidence of “a fundamental contradiction” in the party’s moral stance. 

Bishop Feige said the AfD’s selective defence of life issues revealed “opportunism rather than conviction” and noted that in eastern Germany, where abortion laws had long been established, the party avoided campaigning aggressively on the issue. 

The bishop also rejected the AfD’s criticism that the Catholic Church as weak on abortion, warning that its “selective theology of national regeneration” was incompatible with Christian teaching on universal human dignity. 

His comments were reported by The Catholic Herald, which noted that Feige viewed the forthcoming elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as a “big test” for Germany. 

He added that seventy per cent of AfD voters in the last federal election came from western Germany, showing the movement was not merely an eastern phenomenon.