Germany AfD leadership duo allowed to stay - Weidel wants to end the "hippie craze"
Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla are to lead the AfD together for another two years. At a federal party conference in Essen on Saturday, almost 83 percent of delegates voted in favor of Chrupalla. Weidel received almost 80 percent of votes in favor. This time, there will be no surprising battles for the top positions, as was common in the early years of the AfD. Instead: Pure harmony. Chrupalla proposes his "beloved" co-chairwoman as a candidate. Weidel picks up the ball and announces that she wants to start planning the Bundestag election campaign together "with my beloved Tino".
29.06.2024, 15:18
SDA
The two-day event in Essen is accompanied by massive protests and sit-in blockades. While Weidel mainly railed against the established parties and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution on the first day, Chrupalla appealed to his fellow party members to take more care when drawing up candidate lists in future.
The party leader's crude choice of words goes down well
Germany has "degenerated into a pony farm", complains Weidel. Addressing the traffic light government, she says: "Dear government, get out at last, clear the way for new elections!"
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is monitoring the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist - an assessment that was confirmed by the Higher Administrative Court in Münster in May. To the applause of her party colleagues, Weidel rails: "The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has itself become an enemy of the constitution and should be abolished in this form."
The new citizenship law that has just come into force, with shorter deadlines for naturalization, will be revoked by the AfD in the event of government participation, says Weidel. The CDU/CSU has also announced this. The AfD chairwoman says: "Germany will do away with itself if we don't get our act together and finally put an end to this woke hippie madness."
Co-chairwoman speaks of "coaching team"
In her opening speech, Weidel chose a football metaphor and spoke of a "coaching team" in the party leadership. Perhaps she wants to take the wind out of the sails of party friends who suspect that she wants to push Co-Chairman Tino Chrupalla aside and position herself as the top candidate for the 2025 federal election. A motion to abolish the dual leadership does not find a majority in Essen.
For some delegates, the route to the hall becomes a gauntlet
Left-wing groups had announced their intention to block delegates' access to the party conference grounds. In fact, some of them had difficulties getting to the Grugahalle on time due to the massive protests and blockades. Tens of thousands of AfD opponents march through the streets of the Ruhr metropolis in the morning. The police, who are deployed with several thousand officers, report some violent disruptions by counter-demonstrators and several arrests. According to a statement, "disruptive protesters have attacked emergency services and tried to break through barriers." The police also used pepper spray and batons. By midday, eleven police officers had been injured.
Ukraine should not join the EU
Weidel accuses the traffic light coalition of escalation rhetoric with regard to the war in Ukraine. "These traffic light ministers should finally take responsibility and go to the front themselves, but hands off our sons and fathers," she says. Weidel received loud applause when she said that it was in Germany's and Europe's interests "that Ukraine is not part of the European Union and Europe".
In the European elections on June 9, the AfD gained 15.9% of the vote, but fell short of its own expectations. Reports about the Potsdam meeting of radical right-wingers on so-called remigration, the new competition from the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance and the accusations against its top candidate, Maximilian Krah, who made headlines for weeks due to suspected links to Russia and China, among other things, are likely to have hurt the party. The second candidate on the AfD's European election list, Petr Bystron, was searched on suspicion of bribery and money laundering.
The sun should rise in the east
In Essen, Chrupalla is campaigning for more professionalism from his party, referring to the last European elections. "We could have won 20 percent," he says. Chrupalla also calls on his party colleagues to take more care when selecting candidates. "We need to take a closer look at our candidates in future," he says. He is confident about the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September. The new and old party leader says: "The sun of government responsibility must rise for us in the East." When the result of the vote is announced after the election, he says: "I'm really a bit overwhelmed." In Riesa two years ago, he had only been able to secure a narrow majority of delegates with around 53% of votes in favor. Weidel had received 67.3 percent at the time.
In his speech, Chrupalla emphasized successes. Weidel and he had ended the directional battles in the party. Today, he said: "We are the liberal-social alternative for Germany." He also emphasized the development of membership. According to this, the AfD now has 46,881 members, 17,723 more than at the beginning of 2023.
On the first day, delegates will also discuss the future of their MEPs in Brussels after the right-wing ID parliamentary group there terminated its cooperation with the AfD. In her speech, Weidel also lashed out at the designated new EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) and the right-wing Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni.
