giant Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel will be joint leaders of the AfD in the future. At the federal party conference in Riesa, Saxony, a relatively narrow majority (53.4 percent) voted on Saturday to leave Chrupalla in office for another two years.
Weidel moves up from deputy party leader to the position of co-spokeswoman with equal rights. She received 67.3 percent of the votes. Together, the duo now leads both the parliamentary group and the federal party. Perhaps also to show that they can work together smoothly, Weidel and Chrupalla proposed each other as candidates for the top post.
Chrupalla received 287 out of 538 votes cast. His opponent Norbert Kleinwächter got 195 votes (36.3 percent) – a respectable success for the representative of the more moderate camp. 55 delegates voted against both candidates. There was one abstention.
360 of 538 delegates voted for Weidel. 111 delegates (20.8 percent) voted for their opponent, MEP Nicolaus Fest. 64 voters voted against both candidates, three abstained.
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The delegates had changed the statutes of the AfD on Friday, so that theoretically an individual leadership is also possible in the future. The Thuringian head of state and party right winger Björn Höcke had campaigned for this. However, the party congress voted on Saturday to leave it at a dual leadership this time.
Reappointment of the national board
At the delegates’ meeting, which lasts until Sunday, the entire federal executive board, which last consisted of 13 members, will be reassigned. This will also decide on the future course of the AfD. Depending on how many representatives of the respective party current can secure a post in the body.
Chrupalla has been at the helm since November 2019. In his first election at the party congress in Braunschweig at the time, he got 54.5 percent of the votes. The master craftsman from Saxony led the AfD alone after the departure of ex-co-boss Jörg Meuthen. Meuthen had certified the AfD an increasingly radical course. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the party as a suspected right-wing extremist.
Tino Chrupalla has been at the helm since November 2019.
(Photo: IMAGO/Revierfoto)
Critics within the party, who consider themselves to be in the moderate camp, openly attacked the party leader after the recent loss of votes in several state elections and accused him, among other things, of not being able to score points in the West. You have to “get away from the angry citizens’ party”. They also criticize Chrupalla’s course as being too pro-Russian and associate it with leaving the party.
Chrupalla’s opponent, Kleinwächter, said in his application speech that “we urgently need to get out of the low we’re in”. He advocated professionalism, unity, discipline and a new style of external communication and insisted on a “liberal-conservative” course for the AfD. “We actually represent the majority of the population in our country. She just doesn’t know and we need to let her know.”
Chrupalla campaigned for differentiation from the Union and the FDP. “We want to make the CDU and FDP superfluous,” he said. CDU party leader Friedrich Merz is a “green wolf in black sheep’s clothing”. The AfD does not participate in “vaccination, war and open borders”. According to his own statements, the 47-year-old wants to lead the AfD on a “free and social” course in the next two years.
AfD is not a discontinued model
With a view to the loss of votes in the past state elections, Weidel appealed to the delegates: “Let’s not let every setback pull us down.” She called for more unity and said: “Let’s stop the unfounded accusations in public. ”
The AfD is not a discontinued model. “The AfD is the party of the future”. Weidel called the party the “necessary corrective in the encrusted party landscape”. Her challenger Fest promoted more inner-party harmony. He lamented what he called the unnecessary “continuous shelling” of elected party officials.
Substitutes to the taste of Chrupalla
The AfD has appointed three deputies who were the preferred candidates of the old and new chairman Tino Chrupalla. Party Vice Stephan Brandner, who belongs to the Thuringian state association, was confirmed in office with 72.4 percent. In addition to him, the Bundestag member Peter Boehringer (55.4 percent) and his parliamentary colleague Mariana Harder-Kühnel (74.6 percent) were elected to the inner circle of leaders of the AfD.
Boehringer and Brandner advertised in their application speeches for a “homogeneous federal executive board” with a view to the internal party dispute in the past. Harder-Kühnel, who ran unopposed, railed against “Germany haters”. She called for a party leadership that works together “like a team”.
The chairwoman of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, Erika Steinbach, lost to Boehringer. The former CDU politician only joined the AfD in March, but has been one of the party’s supporters for years. Around 42 percent of the delegates voted for them.
Counter-demonstrations in Riesa
According to the police, a little over 300 counter-demonstrators gathered in front of the AfD federal party conference venue. Banners read “Against” and “No Alternative for Germany”. Everything is going peacefully, said Marko Laske, spokesman for the Dresden police department.
He assumes it will stay that way. He did not say how many police officers are on duty around the party congress. He spoke of a “medium police operation”. At the rally in the parking lot in front of the Sachsenarena, many demonstrators sought shelter in the shade under trees because of the heat.
The alliance “AfD? Adé!”, which had previously warned of a “further rightward shift” by the AfD federal executive board at the party conference. According to the information, representatives of the SPD, Greens, Left, DGB and the Central Council of Muslims also wanted to take part.
More: The Greens draw level with the SPD in terms of voter favor