AfD party congress: camp fight in Kalkar

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AfD co-party leader Tino Chrupalla and Jörg Meuthen in Kalkar: Tense relationship

Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa

In the end, Jörg Meuthen could breathe a sigh of relief.

He had narrowly escaped an application for disapproval from the right-wing camp.

A paper, submitted weeks ago by the far right Dubravko Mandic and others from his Freiburg district association, was not put to the vote after almost two hours of debate.

Around 53 percent of the delegates in Kalkar voted for »not dealing with it«, almost 47 percent were in favor.

It was precisely the numerical front position that was shown in many other places at this two-day party congress: In the exhibition hall in Kalkar, a divided AfD presented itself once again.

Seldom before have the fault lines between the so-called moderate forces around Meuthen and the warriors from the officially disbanded völkisch "wing" network been so openly revealed.

AfD closes programmatic gap with social paper

Actually, the AfD met in Kalkar to adopt a social paper with the first pension concept contained in it since it was founded in 2013.

This also succeeded, with which the AfD closed a programmatic gap.

But the actual event 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 "by and large".

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 »Corona dictatorship« of AfD honorary chairman Alexander Gauland, had some of the »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 gained access with the help of two Bundestag members.

(Read the details here).

Gauland called the speech "divisive".

On Sunday Meuthen had to face the debate again, which threatened to become a danger for the chairman himself.

He was against "any form of division", "unity in discipline" was necessary.

The latest Forsa survey, according to which the AfD has fallen to seven percent, is a "direct effect" of what happened recently in the Bundestag, according to the co-boss.

The AfD must be a "bourgeois party" with "bourgeois reason that appears serious."

Whoever didn't like that, shouted Meuthen, "should put a motion to vote out at the next party conference."

Gauland in the hospital, speech battle in the party conference hall

While Gauland had to be treated in the hospital because of a fall in the morning, a speech battle raged in the hall, as it had often been in the AfD, but not recently with such violence at a federal party congress.

Since Meuthen had the AfD right-wing winger Andreas Kalbitz withdrawn its membership in May by a board decision, a lot had built up.

Long queues formed at the two hall microphones, broadcast live by the Phoenix broadcaster.

"The media celebrate orgies," remarked the Hessian AfD country chief Robert Lambrou, almost resigned.

Meuthen faced the debate on Sunday.

He was against "any form of division", "new unity in discipline" was necessary.

The latest Forsa survey, according to which the AfD has dropped to seven percent, is a "direct effect" of what recently happened in the Bundestag.

The AfD must be a "bourgeois party" with "bourgeois reason that appears serious."

Whoever didn't like that, shouted Meuthen, "should put a motion to vote out at the next party conference."

The camps did not spare themselves, there was sometimes violent shouting, and tense-looking exchanges between the two antipodes at the party leadership Meuthen and co-boss Tino Chrupalla could be observed on the screen:

• One delegate accused Meuthen of having "shaken the foundations of our party" with his speech, and Dirk Spaniel, member of the Bundestag, of Baden-Wuerttemberg, offending "40 to 50 percent" in the hall.

• The Brandenburg deputy chief Birgit Bessin - she had tried unsuccessfully to have "allegations" in Meuthen's speech "rejected" in an amendment - also turned against his criticism of the corona demonstrations: "We are the ones who give those out there a voice «.

• The Saxon-Anhalt AfD politician Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, who is being observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution together with Andreas Kalbitz and Björn Höcke, shouted to Meuthen, "If that is leadership, then you are a leader into nowhere."

• The Saxon AfD country chief Jörg Urban said the speech »continues to divide«.

  And the Höcke colleague Jürgen Pohl, member of the Bundestag from Thuringia, rumbled: "Doctor Meuthen, your time in the AfD is over."

But the situation in Kalkar looked like a narrow point win for the Meuthen camp.

In the board by-elections, three moderate candidates were successful, albeit with narrow results, according to AfD member of the Bundestag Joana Cotar, who moved up to Kalbitz's assessor post with 52 percent in a runoff election.

It went back and forth in the hall at times:

• The NRW local politician Heiner Garbe called the action of right-wing bloggers in the Bundestag a "failure" by AfD co-parliamentary group leader Gauland, "not proletarians, but proletarians" had run through parliament and had "seriously damaged" the AfD.

• Baden-Württemberg's Christoph Högel warned: "We are about to lose the bourgeois spectrum if we shoot Mr. Meuthen here."

• At the microphones it got down to business at times, as if the AfD had long since split into two parties.

  A delegate shouted that there were forces who wanted to turn the AfD into an »NPD.2.0« and shouted that he thanked Meuthen for his »manager«.

Many of the speeches were worried that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution would at some point observe the AfD in its entirety.

The authorities could make a decision on this next spring.

Many officials in the party fear the consequences.

“Herr Höcke, show yourself.

You are the puller in the background "

The Berlin AfD district councilor Andreas Otti at the party conference about the Thuringian AfD politician and right-winger Björn Höcke

In Kalkar, an application was passed in which the AfD pledged to be constitutional.

When asked about this, Meuthen admitted to the Phoenix broadcaster: "That's a message of greeting to the protection of the constitution."

One did not appear as a speaker at the party congress, but was there: Thuringia's right winger Björn Höcke.

“Herr Höcke, show yourself.

You are the puller in the background, ”said the Berlin AfD district councilor Andreas Otti from the podium into the hall.

But Höcke never went to the desk, but spoke to the media.

The decisive fight against Meuthen's course and probably also the co-party leader on the side of Tino Chrupalla has only been postponed in his view.

There is "dissent" in the party, he said on TV cameras, and "at some point you will have to decide what the right way to go."

Meuthen had said on television that morning: "Who is Björn Höcke?" He was a "pure state politician" and should "keep the ball a little flatter".

Editor's note

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