STUTTGART – On a dark February morning at Mercedes-Benz's vast Untertuerkheim plant, workers ?arriving for the early shift are met by activists from Zentrum, a self-styled union affiliated with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
"Game-changer," reads the pamphlet they are handing out ahead of elections for the factory's works council, at which Zentrum aims to challenge mainstream unions it says have failed to shield the automotive industry from thousands of job cuts. Currently confined to the fringes of auto union politics, the far right hopes to harness anxieties among workers in Germany's powerhouse industry to build grassroots influence that could help the AfD on the national stage. The country's carmakers are struggling with the shift to electric vehicles and Chinese competition.
"We have established ourselves," said Oliver Hilburger, 56, who works at the plant in Stuttgart and founded Zentrum in 2009.
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