GermanyFamily and empire - AfD adopts election program
SDA
12.1.2025 - 13:00
Voting at the AfD federal party conference in Riesa. Photo: Sebastian Kahnert/dpa
Keystone
With resolutions on family policy, abortion and history, the AfD adopted its election manifesto at the party conference in Riesa. The delegates decided to include the following sentence in the program: "The family, consisting of father, mother and children, is the nucleus of society". The draft program had initially only stated: "The family is the nucleus of our society."
Keystone-SDA
12.01.2025, 13:00
SDA
"Children don't come from anywhere"
Thuringian AfD politician Wiebke Muhsal said: "Children don't come from just anywhere, but family is where a man and a woman have children together." With regard to chancellor candidate Alice Weidel, who lives with a woman and is raising two children, Hamburg delegate Krzysztof Walczak said that the formulation of a mission statement does not imply that other life and family models should be rejected. "Our candidate for chancellor is a mother herself. She knows what family life looks like, and this model does not contradict tolerance in a liberal society."
After the meeting in Riesa, Saxony, started more than two hours late on Saturday due to blockade actions by AfD opponents, the delegates' journey to the meeting on Sunday went smoothly.
Ultrasound images during pregnancy conflict counseling
In the family chapter of its program, the AfD advocates retaining the current legal situation, according to which abortions are illegal but exempt from punishment in the first twelve weeks if the woman receives counselling beforehand. During pregnancy counseling, however, women should be shown ultrasound images of the child "so that they are aware of the child's stage of development".
Empire and Prussia
The party also attaches importance to portraying the German Empire and Prussia in a positive light. A corresponding passage was added to the election manifesto by a large majority at the request of some delegates. "The ideological furor that is now directed against Prussia and the empire is not only directed at this past state, but at the German nation as such," it says. Even today, the Federal Republic still draws on the intellectual, technological and economic achievements of the first German nation state.
Many resolutions already passed on Saturday
Key resolutions for the election manifesto had already been passed on Saturday. In it, the party calls for a strict migration policy, a reinstatement of compulsory military service, an exit from the euro and the Paris Climate Agreement under the controversial keyword "remigration", as it did in its program for the European elections last year. She also advocates a new European confederation of states, but avoids explicitly calling for Germany to leave the EU (Dexit).
Highlight of Weidel's election
The previous day, AfD leader Alice Weidel had also been chosen as her party's candidate for chancellor to great acclaim and had then sworn her party in for the election campaign in a sharp speech. The AfD wants to carry out large-scale repatriations, "if it's called remigration, then it's called remigration", said Weidel. She had previously avoided using the word herself.
Attacks on the CDU/CSU
In her speech, she attacked the CDU in particular, accusing it of copying from the AfD and calling it a "cheating party". Six weeks before the Bundestag elections, the CDU/CSU and its candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) are in first place with 30 to 31 percent, ahead of the AfD, which has recently made further gains and stands at 21 to 22 percent.
Uproar over windmill statement
Weidel received thunderous applause during her speech when she exclaimed: "When we are at the helm, we will tear down all wind turbines. Down with these windmills of shame." This statement was widely discussed and criticized online. When asked later, Weidel's co-party leader Tino Chrupalla explained that Weidel was mainly referring to the wind turbines for which forests were being felled.
It remained calm around the event hall in Riesa this time. The police presence was significantly reduced. On Saturday, demonstrators had severely delayed the start of the party conference by blocking the access roads. Many AfD delegates were unable to get through.