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Despite Corona: AfD wants to hold a federal party conference in Dresden in April

2021-02-25T16:34:23.524Z


There could be a third wave in the corona pandemic, but the AfD wants to hold a large presence party conference in a few weeks. For the time being, however, no decision will be made about the choice of a new tip.


Icon: enlarge

Scene of the AfD party congress in Kalkar, North Rhine-Westphalia, last November

Photo: WOLFGANG RATTAY / REUTERS

As early as November, the AfD held a federal party conference with hundreds of delegates in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Around five months later, the party now wants to hold another large assembly.

As announced by the federal office, the meeting with 600 delegates will take place on April 10th and 11th in the Dresden exhibition halls.

The Saxon AfD held a two-day state party conference there at the beginning of February and set up its state list for the federal election.

At times there were a good 700 party members in one room.

A comprehensive hygiene concept was applied to the event, the implementation of which was checked by the Dresden Public Order Office on both days.

At the party congress, the AfD wants to decide on the program for the federal election in September.

According to the dpa news agency, an application is under discussion for the future direction of the AfD, which should stir up distrust of other parties.

"The totalitarian behavior of government politicians can only be stopped by means of direct democracy," says a proposal from the program commission, on which the delegates are to vote.

In addition, the party calls for referendums like in Switzerland, also at the federal level.

Internal dispute over election of party leadership

Only recently the federal executive had adopted a provisional agenda for the federal party conference in Dresden.

From the it emerges that the party does not want to send a dual leadership in the federal election campaign.

The last time this happened was in 2017, with Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel.

But in 2021 the AfD is deeply divided;

The provisional rejection of a dual leadership also plays a role in the dispute.

AfD co-boss Jörg Meuthen had pointed out that the top candidates for the federal election had not yet been set up and elected in all state associations.

Only then could the top candidates be set up, everything else is a "blatant distortion of competition," said Meuthen recently on ARD.

State lists are delayed

However, the AfD has some problems with the list - just this week the AfD state party conference in North Rhine-Westphalia was canceled by the local authorities due to the pandemic.

Rüdiger Lucassen, a supporter of Meuthen, should actually be chosen there in first place - at least that's the plan.

Lucassen has to fight back internal opponents.

Opponents of Meuthen around the co-chairman Tino Chrupalla suspect a tactical move to prevent a double top in the coming federal election campaign who does not belong to the Meuthen camp.

Chrupalla had regretted the rejection of a dual leadership.

Probably not without ulterior motives: The Baden-Württemberg state chief and AfD vice-president Alice Weidel and Chrupalla, who has already been elected as the Saxon AfD top candidate, are internally regarded as a possible duo in the federal election campaign.

Weidel, on the other hand, still has to fight for her top spot on the state list in Baden-Württenberg.

Weidel, as SPIEGEL was confirmed in AfD circles, tried to change the agenda for the federal party conference in Dresden on Monday so that the delegates could decide on a dual leadership.

But only Chrupalla, the vice-party leader Stephan Brandner and Stephan Protschka would have approved her in the committee.

Internally, they are all considered Meuthen opponents in the party executive committee.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the provisional agenda will remain in place without the election of a dual leadership in Dresden.

AfD circles suspect that there could still be amendments from the grassroots with the aim of electing a dual leadership in Dresden in the end.

Icon: The mirror

fek / sev / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-02-25

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