Since mid-2013, the Compact Magazine has advertised under the motto "Courage to the Truth" (), which the AfD has also used as a slogan. Elsässer distributed the magazine initially on AfD political conventions. In spring of 2015, he decided to make the magazine an election campaign for the AfD. Especially since the 2015 migrant crisis in Europe, Compact advertises regularly with front pages and theme books for AfD politicians and their positions. Three days before the regional election in Saxony-Anhalt in 2016, Elsässer hosted a live conference with leading AfD candidate André Poggenburg, giving him space to present the AfD goals. He presented Compact as the voice of the "silent majority" and the AfD as their party. On election night Poggenburg did not answer questions from the public broadcasters, but instead only spoke to Compact. Thus Compact has positioned itself as the mouthpiece of the kind of AfD and Pegida supporters who completely reject the mainstream media, calling it the "lying press" ().