A lot has been talked about in the past few days in the AfD leadership. Again and again it was about the question: Does Alexander Gauland, so far co-party leader on the side of Jörg Meuthen, on Saturday at the Federal party in Braunschweig again? Or will Tino Chrupalla, Saxon politician from Görlitz and AfD faction vice in the Bundestag, his successor?
Now Chrupalla has decided: He wants to run for office. He confirmed the SPIEGEL on Wednesday.
The situation was confusing, since the Berlin AfD Bundestag deputy Gottfried Curio had announced surprisingly his candidacy for Gauland's post. The 59-year-old is considered ambitious, had tried in September in the AFD board elections in the parliamentary group tried to get hold of one of the deputies, but failed just short of the previous incumbent Beatrix von Storch.
Curio's plan to join Meuthen as party leader now thwarted Gauland's intentions, which has long been internal to Chrupalla and is ready to be elected honorary chairman of the AfD. Curio, who has noticed with aggressive and demagogic speeches, especially against immigrants in the Bundestag, is internally not trusted the leadership of the party. However, he has many supporters at the grassroots, notably through his speeches broadcast on Youtube channels.
Chrupalla had recently in the Bundestag on the occasion of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a sharp speech against Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) triggered outrage, especially among members of the Union. His advantage: Although he is not a member of the strong right wing network "wings" to the AFD leaders Björn Höcke and Andreas Kalbitz, he enjoys support there.
Threatening again a chaos party day?
His decision to run for the Gauland successor was informally announced after SPIEGEL information in a round on Tuesday, in which, inter alia, Chrupalla, Gauland, Meuthen, the AfD Co-faction leader Alice Weidel, the Federal Board member Andreas Kalbitz ,
This Gauland is quite a risk at the party congress. For now Curio and Chrupalla run for one and the same post on Saturday. As can be heard from the party, wants Gauland despite the arrival of Chrupalla hold a renewed own candidacy for the case that the party convention is chaotic and developed differently than desired.
In recent months, Gauland had repeatedly made it clear that he wanted to avoid a repetition of the party congress of Hanover two years ago. At that time Gauland had declared in advance, not as AfD party leader on the side of Meuthen to compete, but in the end but had to get into the ring and be elected. The reason was a stalemate in two ballots between the Berlin AfD leader Georg Pazderski and surprisingly as a candidate lined up then Schleswig-Holstein AfD Landeschefin Doris of Sayn Wittgenstein.
DPA
Alexander Gauland (l.), Leader of the AfD, and Tino Chrupalla, candidate for the federal presidency of the AfD: back door left open for emergencies
In the face of the difficult situation, Gauland was forced to compete in Hannover at the time and in the end received a result of almost 68 percent. Gauland has been counting on this candidacy over the past few months - in the light of the developments that followed in the two years that followed. Sayn-Wittgenstein, who had been assisted in the fall of 2017 by the nationalist-nationalist "wing" Umhöcke and Kalbitz, was expelled from the party in August this year because of party-damaging behavior. Among other things, she was accused of sponsoring membership in a far-right, Holocaust-denying association.
The two-day party conference in Braunschweig, which begins on Saturday morning, should once again be uneasy for the AFD.
Also Meuthen gets counter-candidate
As was to be learned further from AFD circles on Wednesday, co-party leader Jörg Meuthen must reckon with a counter-candidature. For his post, the AfD member of parliament Nicole Höchst wants to compete. And with the Lower Saxony state and parliamentary leader Dana Guth apparently another woman struggling for one of the two top posts, it said.
Höchst had recently defended to the ZDF a quote from this spring, in which she had compared Merkel with Adolf Hitler: "In my opinion, the seizure of power has already taken place .. The Schnauzer is now wearing rhombus." In a ZDF interview Hochst defended the former quote: "When I look at how back then, according to my knowledge of history, Adolf Hitler came to power, which was switched to the same (...) and I compare that with that, like us pampers today a civil society, which goes to political opponents (...) I see there a lot of parallels, "said Höchst, according to the website of ZDF.
For the closer leadership of the party also candidate Alice Weidel, so far on the side of Gauland AfD Co-faction leader in the Bundestag. The 40-year-old joins the first deputy job.