But that in itself should not be "falling from grace", neither should be forming coalitions with the AfD - it would just be democracy. Of course it would be unforgivable in the eyes of some people, but that goes for many things. I personally find coalitions with socialists unforgivable, but the other parties in Germany have no issues with it, and no media outlets spin it into a scandal.
They are certainly not fascist by nature, and they were elected democratically. The story of how the NSDAP took power is also a bit more complicated, and the election system was amended to prevent such cases in the future.
There may be fascist members of the AfD, but there are also communist members of other parties and nobody cares, even though it is an equally murderous ideology. There is one party in Germany that is literally the party that was in power in the socialist democratic republic and actually murdered people, and all the other parties are cooperating with them. In contrast to that, the AfD is not a descendant of any fascist parties, it was split off from the CDU over differences in economic strategies. Their original founder is a convinced Christian, definitely not a nazi.
What it boils down to, and what recent years have shown (also the Trump years), is that people or especially leftists don't really care that much about democracy anyway. They are only in favor of it as long as their party of choice gets elected.
Who? DIE LINKE is constantly (rightfully) critizied for their extremist parts and members, also for their SED roots. I agree with your assessment about murderous communism but disagree that nobody cares. I was born in the GDR and hate communism with a fiery passion. Plattenbauten are traumatic for me. Anyway...
The AfD is a fundamentally anti-democratic party at least since Petry took over. It became 10x worse with Gauland and Weidel. The debate is pretty clear in Germany and you are legally (!) allowed to call some of its members fascists because that is exactly what they are and exactly how they act. Proven Neo-Nazis like Björn Höcke and Andreas Kalbitz are only dealt with to save face in front off media and later re-introduced to powerful party positions anyway.
Their only goal is disruption, they have zero constructive solutions to anything and their ideas are based on lies and fake news. On top of it all, they are directly supported by Russian money, a country whose main foreign policy has been disruption since the 1980s.
Also, I didn't talk about how the NSDAP finally seized power, that reads like a distraction. I am talking about how NSDAP was democratically elected for multiple periods although their street thugs already roamed Germany for nearly a decade before Hitler became chancellor. As in - angry people are happy to democratically vote anti-democrats. AfD is just proving it a second time.
All parties cooperate with Die Linke, at least in the counties. No party has a "never work with Die Linke" paradigm, as they have with the AfD. Even the FDP has by not cooperated with them, as far as I know - they used to be strictly against it, but who cares about what they said yesterday.
The Greens have extreme socialists in their ranks, look at their anti-capitalist youth organisations and prominent Green party members walking with them behind anti-capitalist banners.
The SPD openly calls for Socialism, and they have elected far left Kühnert as new head of the pary.
Please name any anti-democratic policies by the AfD? it is the most ridiculous claim, as one of their main policies is more direct democracy.
If you are referring to the one court case when you claim it is now legally allowed to call some of them nazis, that is fake news. It was not actually the issue that was debated at court. I am too lazy to look up the details, but I think it was about something that a newspaper wrote about Höcke, and Höcke was not even involved in the court case. Anyway if you care, you can find the details why it is fake news.
"Their only goal is disruption, they have zero constructive solutions to anything and their ideas are based on lies and fake news."
I disagree, also, it is not as if the other parties have good solutions. Things have been going downhill in Germany for a while, on many fronts.
"On top of it all, they are directly supported by Russian money, a country whose main foreign policy has been disruption since the 1980s."
Oh please... Really? Even if it were true, so what. Other countries should be allowed to pursue their interest and support parties in other countries. Russia gave a job to the Ex SPD chancellor, too.
"I am talking about how NSDAP was democratically elected for multiple periods although their street thugs already roamed Germany for nearly a decade before Hitler became chancellor. As in - angry people are happy to democratically vote anti-democrats."
I don't know what point you are trying to make. You think other voters don't vote based on their anger? Leftists are mostly driven by hate and anger against "evil capitalism, neocons, exploiters, nazis..." - most media dwells on anger and it is the main thing that drives people to the voting booths.
As for violence, there were more violent attacks against AfD politicians than against all other parties combined (iirc). Antifa is essentially a terrorist organisation fighting any non-socialist politics with violence. And many politicians endorse them, for example Künast from the Greens even called for them to receive government funding.
Fascist parties are illegal in Germany, so if AfD were fascist they wouldn't be allowed to run.
