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In the end, Jörg Meuthen was able to breathe a sigh of relief. He narrowly escaped a request for disapproval from the field on the right.
A document, presented weeks ago by far-right Dubravko Mandic and others from his Freiburg district association, was not put to a vote after nearly two hours of debate. About 53 percent of delegates in Kalkar voted in favor of “not addressing it”, just under 47 percent were in favor.
It was precisely the numerical position of the front that was shown in many other places at this two-day party congress: in the Kalkar showroom, a divided AfD presented itself once again. Rarely before have the dividing lines between the so-called moderate forces around Meuthen and the warriors of the officially disbanded völkisch “wing” network been so openly exposed.
AfD closes the programmatic gap with social role
In fact, the AfD met in Kalkar to adopt a social document with the first pension concept contained in it since its founding in 2013. This too was successful, thereby closing a programmatic gap. But the real fact was neither that nor the question of whether the AfD delegates – around 540 of the expected 600 had come – adhered to the hygiene and distance rules and the mask requirement; According to the regulatory office, this happened “in general.”
On the other hand, Meuthen’s speech on the first day, in which he settled accounts with the right-wing part of the party, indirectly criticized the word of the ‘dictatorship of the Crown’ of the honorary president of the AfD, Alexander Gauland, had something of ‘lateral thinking’ – had the effect of an unexpected grenade impact. Movement attacked and condemned the recent action by right-wing bloggers in the Bundestag, who had acceded with the help of two members of the Bundestag. That was disapproved of by the group. (Read the details here). Gauland has already called Meuthen’s speech Saturday “divisive.”
Gauland in the hospital, battle of speeches in the party conference room
While Gauland had to be treated in hospital on Sunday due to a fall in the morning, a battle of speeches broke out in the hallway, as it had often been in the AfD, but not recently with such violence at a party conference. federal.
Since Meuthen had the right-wing AfD winger Andreas Kalbitz withdraw his membership in May by board decision, a lot had accumulated. Long lines formed at the two microphones in the room, broadcast live on the Phoenix station. “The media have orgies,” said Hessian AfD Country Head Robert Lambrou, almost resigned.
Meuthen faced the debate on Sunday. He was against “any form of division”, a “new unity in the discipline” was necessary. The latest Forsa poll, according to which the AfD has dropped to seven percent, is a “direct effect” of what happened recently in the Bundestag. The AfD must be a “bourgeois party” with “bourgeois reason that seems serious”. Whoever didn’t like that, Meuthen shouted, “should make a motion to vote at the next party conference.”
The camps were not spared, at times there were violent screams and tense exchanges between the two antipodes at the top of the party: Meuthen and co-chief Tino Chrupalla could be observed on the screen:
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One delegate accused Meuthen of having “shaken the foundations of our party” with his speech, and Dirk Spaniel, a member of the Baden-Württemberg Bundestag, offended “between 40 and 50 percent” in the room.
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Brandenburg deputy head Birgit Bessin – she had unsuccessfully tried to have the “accusations” in Meuthen’s speech “rejected” in an amendment – also turned against her criticism of the crown demonstrations: “We are the ones who give voice to those out there.
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Saxon-Anhalt AfD politician Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, who is being watched by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution along with Andreas Kalbitz and Björn Höcke, yelled at Meuthen: “If that is leadership, then you are a leader towards the nothing”.
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Saxon AfD country chief Jörg Urban said the speech “continues to divide.” And Höcke’s colleague Jürgen Pohl, a member of the Thuringian Bundestag, roared: “Doctor Meuthen, your time in the AfD is over.”
But the situation in Kalkar looked like a narrow points win for Meuthen’s field. In the by-board elections, three moderate candidates were successful, albeit with narrow results, according to AfD member of the Bundestag Joana Cotar, who rose to the post of Kalbitz adviser with 52 percent in a runoff. At times there were back and forth in the hall, there were discussions in front of the cameras:
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Local NRW politician Heiner Garbe called the action by right-wing bloggers in the Bundestag a “failure” by the leader of the AfD co-parliamentary group, Gauland. “Not proletarians, but proletarians” had come forward in parliament and had “seriously damaged” the AfD.
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Christoph Högel from Baden-Württemberg warned: “We are about to lose the bourgeois specter if we shoot Mr. Meuthen here.”
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On the microphones he sometimes got down to business, as if the AfD had split into two parts a long time ago. One delegate shouted that there were forces that wanted to turn the AfD into an »NPD.2.0« and shouted that he thanked Meuthen for his »manager«.
Many of the speeches were concerned that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution would at some point look at the AfD in its entirety. The authorities could make a decision next spring. Many party officials fear the consequences.
In Kalkar, a motion was passed committing the AfD to be constitutional. When asked about this, Meuthen admitted to the Phoenix station: “That is a greeting message to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.”
One did not appear as a speaker at the party congress, but he was there: the right wing from Thuringia, Björn Höcke. Herr Höcke, show yourself. You are the shooter in the background, ”said Berlin AfD District Councilor Andreas Otti from the podium into the hall.
But Höcke never went to the desk, instead he spoke to the media. The decisive fight against the course of Meuthen and probably also the party leader on the side of Tino Chrupalla has only been postponed in his opinion. There is “dissension” in the party, he said on television cameras, and “at some point you will have to decide which is the right path.”
Meuthen had said on television that morning: “Who is Björn Höcke?” He was a “pure state politician” and should “hold the ball a little flatter.”
Editor’s note: Due to the situation of the crown, the SPIEGEL reporters did not follow the party congress on the site, but in front of the TV screen and on the live broadcast.
