The delegates at the party congress re-elected Chrupalla and Weidel as their chairmen for the first time. Despite a relatively clear vote for the two favorites, the alternative for Germany is struggling for its course. Norbert Kleinwächter achieved a respectable result.
Member of the Bundestag Tino Chrupalla from Görlitz has been federal spokesman for the AfD since November 2019.
At the federal party conference of the AfD in Riesa, Saxony, Tino Chrupalla was confirmed as party chairman for the next two years. He prevailed this Saturday with 287 of 538 delegate votes and thus 53.45 percent against Norbert Kleinwaechter, who, like Chrupalla, belongs to the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Officially, Chrupalla is still the party’s first federal spokesman.
The successor to MEP Jörg Meuthen, who left the party, is Alice Weidel, who already heads the parliamentary group together with Chrupalla. Weidel was elected the second federal spokeswoman with 360 votes or 67.29 percent. Her opponent, Member of the European Parliament Nicolaus Fest, was only able to win 20.75 percent. The party congress did not make use of the option, which had been decided the day before with a two-thirds majority, to appoint only one party chairman instead of a dual leadership.
open questions
The elections were preceded by debates on both the rules of procedure and the party’s program. After the last ten electoral defeats in a row, Chrupalla invoked the unity of the party and identified internal disputes and a “destructive mood” on the board as the main reason for the downward trend. He himself wants to remain the voice of the base. If he was attacked, “then only because the base should be silenced”. The AfD must stick to its “free and social” course, but admit that different approaches are needed in the East and in the West.
In doing so, Chrupalla indirectly opposed the efforts of the camp led by party right-wing outsider Björn Höcke, which would like to extend the “Thuringian way” to the republic. Höcke had previously reprimanded “narcissists on the federal executive board” in several speeches, which harmed the party – a polemic aimed at the former chairman Meuthen and his bourgeois-liberal supporters.
The 36-year-old Norbert Kleinwächter pleaded for a “core renovation” and a new beginning as a bourgeois, liberal and conservative party. The AfD actually represents the majority in Germany, but they don’t know it. That’s why he wants to overcome “the low we are in” through unity, discipline and “clear guidelines with full grass-roots democracy” and better communication. However, the English and French teacher was unable to convince the majority of the delegates with his appeal to “place positive, charismatic new people at the front”.
It remains questionable how many members of the “Future Team” presented by Chrupalla will be appointed to the board by the party conference. In addition to Alice Weidel, this tableau also includes Member of Parliament Stephan Brandner, the national chairman of the Junge Alternative, Carlo Clemens, and the cultural policy spokesman for the parliamentary group, Marc Jongen.
Dispute about the judges
The party conference had started late because on Friday morning only 365 of the 600 delegates provided for in the statutes had gathered in the Sachsenarena. The number of participants later rose to around 550. The Federal Arbitration Court refused to allow the delegates from the Berlin State Association to participate due to irregularities in the compilation of the list. A lawsuit filed at short notice with the district court of Berlin was unsuccessful.
Against this background, the election of the judges and substitute judges of the arbitral tribunal turned into an ideological war of words. Among others, the extreme right-wing lawyer Roland Ulbrich was elected, who had warned in his application speech about the supposedly growing “system-conform approaches in our party”.
The party congress lasts until Sunday and should end with the singing of the national anthem.
A detailed report follows.