Conservative parties from Germany and Poland to Australia and Canada are seeking to mimic the “America First” approach that fueled President Donald Trump’s stunning political comeback in 2024. That slogan, once ridiculed by global elites, has now become a rallying cry defining campaigns and shaping new coalitions.

Throughout the world, the issues animating voters are strikingly similar: border and national security, energy independence, economic deregulation, and the unsustainable growth of national debts. Politicians are facing the same basic dilemma: cut spending and risk economic stagnation, or expand the debt and face either austerity or tough choices on social welfare.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Germany.

A month ago, German voters ousted the ruling socialist coalition in record numbers, rejecting policies of debt expansion paired with sky-high subsidies and an inflated welfare state. The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), long Germany’s dominant center-right party, emerged victorious. The hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), once a political pariah, came in second, winning 152 seats in the Bundestag.