Not long ago, Saxony's right-wing populists dreamed of winning first place in Sunday's state election. Already at the last federal election they were in the Free State just ahead of the CDU, even in the European elections in May. Now, a week before the election, the CDU comes in recent polls on a slight lead.
But the AfD will be able to celebrate a success either way: At the Sachsen election five years ago, it was still just under ten percent, on Sunday it is expected 20 plus X.
For a Saxon in the Bundestag every percentage point counts: AFD Vice-fraction leader Tino Chrupalla from the Saxon town of Görlitz has long been traded as the future co-chairman of the side of Jörg Meuthen. And so for Chrupalla could be an electoral success of his Saxony-AfD career accelerator.
In the party, it is an open secret that the 78-year-old co-chief Alexander Gauland wants to focus on working as chairman of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag and may not compete at the next party conference in November for the AfD chief post.
Only a few days ago Gauland and Chrupalla met in the Saxon Spitzkunnersdorf on an AfD election event - both obviously in a good mood. If Chrupalla ascended in autumn with the blessing of Gauland, would be with him at the side of the West German Meuthen again an East German at the AfD-top.
Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Gauland and Chrupalla: good mood in Spitzkunnersdorf
The last East German was Frauke Petry, once also Saxon AfD leader, who resigned from the party after the federal election and since then sits as a non-party in the Bundestag. With her "Blue Party" she is considered in the elections in the Free State, according to all surveys, as a chance.
The 44-year-old Chrupalla, meanwhile, is one of the well-known faces of the Saxon AfD. In the general election, he beat the CDU candidate and later Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer in the constituency of Görlitz. A surprise.
Always further to the right
From the nimbus as Kretschmer-Vanquisher Chrupalla continues to feed today: Both come from Görlitz, both were once at the Junge Union, the junior CDU. Görlitz is once again in the focus of public interest: In the state election, it now tries the AfD politician Sebastian Wippel against Kretschmer, but should be according to polls this time, the Prime Minister as the winner from the square go.
The master craftsman Chrupalla - since 2015 in the party - comes from an AfD state association, which has moved more and more to the right in recent years. While several former CDU politicians were active in the party in the early years, most of them also said goodbye to the departure of Frauke Petry from the AfD.
What remains are members, some of whom have repeatedly made headlines:
- One of the most controversial representatives is the party and parliamentary press spokesman Andreas Harlaß . According to a decision of the District Court of Dresden, he has to put up with being called a supporter of the "Nazi racial ideology". On Facebook he shared extremist positions, venturing out about "primitive people". He appears in a promising constituency in Dresden.
- Rolf Weigand was recently elected Vice-Mayor of Großschirma in Central Saxony. He is already sitting in the state parliament, is considered conservative and is chairman of the state association of the "Young Alternative", which was classified by the constitutional protection as a "test case" in the field of right-wing extremism.
- The Saxon AFD General Secretary Jan Zwerg also has good chances to land in the state parliament. "The state election will vote on whether Saxony remains German," he said at the AFD state party conference in February. He called the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution "Kretschmer's Stasi". He is running on list position 2.
Chrupallas Guide to Media
In personal dealings Chrupalla is not a Haudrauf, his statements from recent times were rather moderate in tone for AFD ratios. But also Chrupalla dominates the right-wing rhetoric. For example, he warned Kretschmer against "promoting illegal migration".
As AfD district chairman in Görlitz he developed, as he said in a letter in the spring to party friends, "in close coordination" with his national association a "guide" for dealing with social media and with journalists. "Black list for dubious representatives of the press!" he demanded, and: journalists who are "biased and clearly against us will be deleted from our distribution list". He has not publicly distanced himself from this until today.
Robert Michael / dpa
Saxony's Prime Minister Kretschmer, AfD chief Urban
Although Chrupalla is not a representative of the folk-nationalist AFD network "wings" to the Brandenburg Andreas Kalbitz and the Thüringer Björn Höcke, but is considered in their circles as a potentially majority - which increases his chances of Gauland succession in the fall.
The Saxon AfD leader and top candidate Jörg Urban (read more here), for many years managing director of the "Green League Saxony" and today "wing" sympathizer, recently told the "world", he wished at the federal level an East German "and Tino Chrupalla is the only name I have heard in this regard ".
It would be "nice" for him to be able to "organize majorities". Urban should not be unhappy about higher consecrations for his colleague, since both are regarded as competitors in the national association. Only at the beginning of June was it finally clear that Urban would be the sole leading candidate for the Sachsen-AfD in the state election campaign.
Since that decision was made, Chrupalla has focused largely on federal politics. His ambitions are clear.