Germany’s far-right AfD party is poised to rejuvenate its leadership
on Saturday at a congress hit by massive protests, with its increasingly
influential radical wing seeking to tighten its grip on the group.
The anti-migrant party’s extremists have the upper hand after
electoral gains in eastern regions in September and October that have
caused widespread domestic and international alarm.
Illustrating the polarising effect the party has on Germany, 20,000
protesters gathered outside the congress hall in the city of
Braunschweig in a noisy demonstration against what they call a racist
party.
Crying “Get lost!” and “All of Germany hates the AfD”, the protesters
held up posters bearing slogans like “No place for Nazis” or “Stop the
AfD”.
The huge numbers turning up in the city “is a clear sign that no one
in Braunschweig wants the AfD here,” said Udo Sommerfeld, a spokesman
for the anti-far-right protest.
On the eve of the congress, around a thousand protesters, all dressed
in black, also marched through the centre of the city against the
far-right outfit.
Wary of any negative association with the party, automaker
Volkswagen, whose name is on the hall used by the AfD, has requested its
logo be covered up.
– Generation change –
Within the hall, tensions are also running high as Alexander Gauland,
78, prepares to step down from his co-chairman role, while 58-year-old
Joerg Meuthen is set to defend his seat against a challenge from party
radicals.
Gauland told the party it was time to rejuvenate its leadership, saying he will “make way today for someone younger.”
Bjoern Hoecke, a leading figure of the radical Fluegel (“Wing”), has not directly put forward his name for Gauland’s spot.
But anyone seeking the post would need the backing of his faction,
which is known for its criticism of Germany’s culture of remembrance.
One likely candidate who might please all sides is Tino Chrupalla, a
44-year-old MP and former house-painter from the eastern state of
Saxony.
Chrupalla, who met with former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon in
Berlin earlier this year, can count on both the support of Hoecke’s
Fluegel as well as of more moderate members of the party.
– Compromise candidate –
The AfD, established just six years ago, is riven with personal and ideological rivalries.
But Chrupalla is widely seen as the compromise candidate.
His main challenger will be Gottfried Curio, a fiery orator whose
parliamentary speeches have made him a far-right social media star.
Chrupalla has presented himself as a more serious candidate, but he too has prompted outrage with his rhetoric.
Last month, he was booed in parliament after accusing Chancellor
Angela Merkel of treating her voters as “underlings” with
“micro-aggressions against everything German”.
He has also called the “Islamisation of the West” a “reality”, saying
that one could qualify it as a replacement of the population.
He is seen as a representative of the former East Germany, the AfD’s stronghold.
Hoecke recently described Chrupalla as “one of the AfD’s great representatives in the East”.
Meanwhile one Fluegel member, 49-year-old MP Nicole Hoechst, is now also planning to unseat co-leader Joerg Meuthen.
Meuthen, a university professor from western Germany, represents the more moderate wing of the party.
– ‘Memorial of shame’ –
With 91 MPs, the AfD is now the third political force in the German parliament after the CDU and SPD.
But its support in opinion polls has stagnated at around 13 to 15 percent.
The AfD started out as a eurosceptic party but became increasingly
anti-migrant and opposed to Merkel’s refugee policy which saw more than a
million asylum-seekers arrive since 2015.
Mainstream parties have refused to work with the AfD and therefore
prevented it from holding executive power on a national or regional
level.
The radical Fluegel in particular has drawn scrutiny as it has
attacked one of the foundation stones of Germany’s post-war political
culture — atonement for its Nazi past.
Hoecke notoriously described Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial as a
“memorial of shame”, while his colleague Andreas Kalbitz has been
accused of association with neo-Nazi organisations.
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