- The AfD is holding its party conference in Dresden
- The ie is the election program for the federal elections in the fall and the top candidates for it
- Almost 600 delegates are on site
- A clear majority is in favor of Germany leaving the EU
- Read here about the mood at the party conference and who is arguing with whom
"Germany. But normal" is the slogan with which the AfD enters the 2021 Bundestag elections. Normal? What does normal mean here?? That the AfD Even eight years after its founding, the European Commission is still struggling with this ie Federal Party Congress clearly demonstrated in Dresden.
The demand for a Germany's exit from the European Union. After a heated debate, this was accepted by a clear majority of the nearly 600 delegates – and anchored in the draft for an election program. The draft election program now states, "We consider it necessary for Germany to withdraw from the European Union and to establish a new European economic and interest community."In the main proposal for the program, however, withdrawal was only listed as an option. Meuthen had vehemently campaigned for rejection of the amendment.
Top duo is still unknown – but there are hot candidates
The election of a top duo, The date with which the party is to enter the Bundestag election campaign has been postponed – even though some thought the timing for the freestyle was ideal. AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla is considered one of the most promising candidates. He could be joined by Hessian AfD politician Joana Cotar. Bundestag faction leader Alice Weidel had already announced that she would not stand again as a top candidate.
Controversy also revealed itself elsewhere. A motion to put the party chairmen Jorg Meuthen The idea of prematurely voting out Meuthen does not make it onto the agenda. The party executive committee, in which Meuthen has the majority of members behind him, nevertheless comes under heavy fire on Saturday.
Chrupalla wedges against Meuthen
While Meuthen focuses on the election campaign in his opening speech, the co-chairman shares Tino Chrupalla from. He criticizes Meuthen for his incendiary speech at the federal party conference last November. Meuthen had called in Kalkar, North Rhine-Westphalia, to renounce crass positions and riotous appearance. In March, an appearance by Meuthen on "Markus Lanz" made headlines.
A party leader is also allowed to express his thoughts publicly, Chrupalla says, but "certain things should be discussed internally and not in public". While Meuthen speaks of "currents" in the party, Chrupalla calls for "an end to camp thinking!"Referring to Meuthen, he said that the demands made by the latter Discipline applies to all.
Top candidacy remains unclear
The party congress decided to discuss the question of Bundestag top candidacy not to be resolved on the spot in Dresden. It will thus be decided as sought by Meuthen by member vote. Seven state associations, including all five eastern associations, had originally sought clarification at the party convention. Decided there now only that the AfD should again enter the race with two candidates. 2017 formed Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland, today's Bundestag parliamentary group leader, the top duo.
Weidel reportedly decided on Saturday morning, ahead of this party conference decision, not to run as a possible top candidate at the party conference. Whether she will enter the race in a membership referendum initially remained open. As point candidate Chrupalla is considered set.
Party congress calls for end to lockdown
There is also the question of how seriously to take the threat of the Coronavirus should take, is highly controversial in the AfD. On the podium, a member of the federal executive committee wants to welcome honorary chairman Alexander Gauland with a handshake. But the waves off. Down in the hall, too, not everyone is so careful about distance and mask, which is why the assembly management feels compelled to remind everyone of the hygiene rules. The Dresden office for order controlled the adherence to the editions and with disregard Consequences announced.
With a large majority, the party congress passed a Corona resolution. In it, the AfD calls for an end to the lockdown, saying the ie of infection control should be left to "responsible citizens". Those in power are accused of a "policy of fear. "Even indirect" coercion of vaccinations, but also Corona tests, would be rejected.
Hocke accuses party executive of power games
The Thuringian AfD state chairman Bjorn Hocke The chairman of the party takes to the microphone more often than at previous federal party conferences. He accuses the Federal Executive Board of having removed Roland Hartwig, a member of the Bundestag, as head of a working group dealing with interception protection "for power-political reasons". In doing so, Hartwig had done a "great job" in this role.
The working group had been founded in September 2018. It has a mandate to deal with the ie of "possible observation by state offices or the Federal Office for the Protection of Interception". At the time, it was said that their task would be to prepare counter-strategies, both legal and argumentative.
In December, at Meuthen's request, the party leadership had elected Knuth Meyer-Soltau, a lawyer from North Rhine-Westphalia, as the new head of the group. Chrupalla voted against Hartwig's replacement. In the meantime, some state associations of the AfD have already landed on the radar of the interceptors. The "wing" founded by Hocke in 2015, which has since been formally dissolved, is classified as a right-wing extremist endeavor by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Hartwig considers this unjustified.
The fact that a slim majority of the 560 or so present eventually Delegates Some observers see the fact that Hocke's so-called "social-patriotic wing" is in favor of discussing Hartwig's personnel at the party conference as an indication that Hocke's supporters are now able to organize majorities within the party.
There is one thing on which there is agreement
There is also a fierce dispute because the federal executive probably recently prevented the admission of several new members in Saxony-Anhalt. About what AfD prospects since were rejected, can be only conjectured. The criticism of the party executive committee came, however, also in this case from supporters of the far-right wing.
Many speakers agree that disunity of the AfD in the Election campaign can only do harm. Therefore, like Saxony's AfD leader Jorg Urban, they advocate keeping inner-party conflicts under wraps. "Let us convey a signal of unity and departure from Dresden," Urban calls to the delegates almost imploringly. In some party conference speeches, however, hidden side-swipes can be seen, which give the impression that after the election there will probably be an internal settlement of accounts. At the latest with the planned new election of the federal executive committee at the end of November.
In front of the door waits the counter-demo
Outside the door, about 150 demonstrators make it loudly clear what they want from the party AfD altogether hold – with chants and posters. On the way from the parking lot to the exhibition hall, the delegates have to pass directly by the crowd. It's like running a little verbal gauntlet. Rosa von Striesen, spokeswoman for a protest alliance of several initiatives, considers the slogan of the AfD election campaign "Deutschland. But normal" for an ideological revelation oath of the party. This is "an attempt to further normalize hate and agitation," she says.