Swiss publicist Roger de Weck has argued in a new essay that conservative parties — not the left — are best placed to halt the rise of right-wing authoritarian populists such as Germany's AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, a far-right nationalist party). Writing ahead of recent state elections in eastern Germany, de Weck contends that conservatives must rediscover their historic role as defenders of democratic institutions, pointing to figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl as examples of conservatives who shaped rather than merely preserved the political order. Crucially, he warns that any move by the CDU to tear down its so-called firewall and cooperate with or imitate the AfD would be self-defeating, citing evidence from Austria and elsewhere that parties copying populist rivals weaken themselves while strengthening the original.