At the end of November, the AfD will elect a new governing body at its federal party convention in Braunschweig. The radiant election winner Björn Höcke himself is not sure whether he will run for the first time for a seat on the federal executive committee. He whispers there "not necessarily", he whispers, but sometimes there are constellations in which one has to decide "to run for office". Everything still open so.
Whatever Höcke decides, one thing stands out before the party congress: After the electoral successes of the AfD in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia, the East wants to be increasingly represented in the executive committee. More representation "is also ours," says Höcke.
This could make AfD politics even more aggressive and radical.
The 47-year-old Höcke, who scored 23.4 percent in Thuringia, is next to the Brandenburg AFD country chief Andreas Kalbitz one of the key representatives in the "wing". The network is a collection of ethnic and national conservative AFD representatives, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution leads as a "suspected case" in the field of right-wing extremism.
The voters in the East did not shy away from this - on the contrary, the national associations, led by "wing" men, garnered almost a quarter of the vote.
Getty Images
AfD politician Alexander Gauland, Björn Höcke and Jörg Meuthen
But in the party leadership they only play a minor role - still. Höcke had already threatened in the summer at a Kyffhäuser meeting of the "wing", he could "guarantee that this federal executive committee in this composition is not re-elected."
The "wing" is anchored in particular in the east, but also in the numerically larger West German national associations of the AfD he has supporters. How strong he really is among the 35,000 members remains speculative. Party leader Jörg Meuthen recently estimated their followership as "perhaps 25, 30 percent". In the summer he had spoken of "at most 20 percent".
Defeat of the "wing" recently in NRW
Not everywhere is the strategy of the "wing" succeeding in shifting the right wing party further to the right. In the election of a new state chairman in the deeply fractious North Rhine-Westphalia Association was subject recently with Thomas Röckemann a "wing" representative to the AfD defense politician Rüdiger Lucassen. The former officer did not criticize the "wing" at the congress, but its strategy: It was necessary and useful to deal with the current, so Lucassen. The conclusion, however, that one must act like the divisions of the AfD in the East and then achieve similar successes in NRW, was wrong and witnessed "of boundless naivety".
AfD Co-Party leader Alexander Gauland had recently received internal criticism, for example from the "Alternatives Mitte" in the party, which sees itself as a counterpart to the "wing", but has hardly been publicly discernible in recent times. Gauland had said in the Thuringian election night that Höcke was "the middle of the party". Meanwhile, he speaks of Höcke standing "in the middle of the party" - a semantic correction. But Gauland also added: If you get a result like in Thuringia, "definitely not a marginal figure".
Also in Saxony and Brandenburg recently won top candidates, who feel the "wing" belonging. In the 13-member Federal Executive, elected two years ago, but currently only two "wing" representatives sit: In addition to the Brandenburg AfD chief Andreas Kalbitz this is the Saxony-Anhalt member of parliament Frank Pasemann.
Höcke and his concept of "solidary patriotism"
Getty Images
AfD politician Jörg Meuthen, Alexander Gauland, Björn Höcke in conversation with parliamentary press spokesman Christian Lüth.
Höcke obviously aims to broaden his ideological following in terms of personnel in the federal executive committee. It is more important to him than his person that the "concept of Solidarity Patriotism" be subjugated with people, "he says. A buzzword with which Höcke has long been connecting a social and pension policy aimed at German citizens.
Party leader Meuthen spoke this week of "three, four, possibly five" representatives of the East German provincial associations, which could come to the board at the party conference in Braunschweig. One who does not belong to the "wing", but in their circles but recognition, is the Saxon AFD member of parliament Tino Chrupalla. Once in the "Junge Union", Co-Party leader Gauland sees him as a possible successor, who can also appeal to bourgeois voters.
Meuthen has already felt the organizational power of the "wing"
For a long time, 78-year-old Gauland has been focussing on concentrating on the role of fraction leader in the Bundestag. With Chrupalla could - after the well-worn East German AfD spokeswoman Frauke Petry - after a long time next to Meuthen come again an original East face at the head of the party. Provided Gauland does not start again - he may announce a decision at the congress itself.
The fact that Chrupalla can also hope for Höckes support, was shown recently at an AfD appointment in the Federal Press Conference in Berlin: When the Thuringian AfD chief spoke about "very good representatives" from the East, he showed in the hall: "There behind one - Tino Chrupalla from Saxony. "
The relationship between co-party leader Meuthen zu Höcke has meanwhile cooled down. Although Meuthen had once - in opposition to former party leader Frauke Petry - entered into an alliance with Gauland and Höcke, met on Kyffhäuser meeting of the "wing" as a guest. But that seems over. In the station "Phoenix" Meuthen said these days: "If it wants Björn Höcke to run, then he should do that, then we will see where the majority conditions are."
Meuthen has felt the organizational power of the "wing" itself: After he had expressed understanding of a signature campaign by more than 100 AfD politicians against Höcke, he was in the summer of his southwest German district association in Ortenau not as a delegate for the federal party congress in November selected.
Instead traveling from its base almost exclusively supporters of the "wing" to the Federal Party Congress in Braunschweig.
