In the recent referendum on the European Union, right-wing parties in countries like Austria, France and Germany made strong inroads. Given the number of seats each country is allocated, it hardly helps that such parties like the Sweden Democrats suffered a setback. A radicalization of European politics might seem discernible. Social science research provides ample evidence that right-wing populist movements and related political parties are on the rise in most European Union Member States as well as in other countries. Of particular interest to a rhetorician is however how populist parties appeal to imaginary worlds to evoke (and construct) a shared nationalist past in the form of identity narratives. In a country like Germany, these narratives are of particular interest, because the country does not have a common past, divided as it was through the years of cold war. Notably, the Alternative for Germany(Afd) was the strongest party in the eastern parts of Germany, and if it had been for the voters in these areas, it would have prevailed over the established Christian Democrat Union (CDU). In this paper, the AfD is examined in an attempt to understand the success of the populist party in the recent referendum on the European Union. It is a rhetorical analysis in that the election results are interpreted embedded in the rhetorical situation. Given these results, the success in the eastern parts of Germany has been attributed to the socialization of the GDR-era and the dashed hopes after reunification. It is a lack of confidence in this aspect of democracy that provides a breeding ground for parties like the AfD, which they know how to exploit through the use of alternative fora such as TikTok and Twitter on which they promote their ideas on new boundaries and alternative governance.