Its leader Frauke Petry said it was time to reassess Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal refugee policy, which she slammed as costly and based on false ideas on how well migrants would integrate into the labour market.
"We have to reassess what is doable and what can be financed in this country -- and not, like the left, spread utopian ideas about how many millions and billions more in taxpayers' money can be spent, now that we have realised that the fairytale of skilled migrants from civil war areas obviously isn't true."
The AfD, formed three years ago as an anti-euro party but now running mainly on an anti-migrant platform, scored between 12 and 24 per cent in three state elections yesterday.
It is now represented in half of Germany's 16 state assemblies as well as the European parliament and is hoping to enter the national parliament in elections due late next year.
Also Read
"Germany voted yesterday in three regions and we believe that this was a good day for democracy in this country," said Petry.
"German society, not just now but for many years, has experienced a continuous disintegration which is clearly reflected in the impoverishment of the middle class, where families are increasingly overwhelmed and the future of our country is in question."
Faced with this situation, "we want to be the party of social peace," she proclaimed, hailing the AfD victories which she said came "despite an extensive smear campaign in recent weeks".
Party co-leader Joerg Meuthen, however, distanced the AfD from the National Front, calling Marine Le Pen's group "a party that has deeply nationalist and socialist ideas, which is alien to our party".
Meuthen said the AfD is "a new conservative force, liberal, respectful of civic values, open to the world and at the same time patriotic".