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Björn Höcke at the AfD federal party conference in Dresden: Flashing to the right
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Actually, the picture so far has been like this: Björn Höcke usually stayed in the background at AfD federal party conferences.
To date, he has not run for any office at the top of the federal government, and he has not yet dared to step into the federal executive board.
In Dresden, however, another Höcke could be observed on two days.
He had probably never answered the microphone that often at a federal party conference.
Again and again he justified amendments to the election manifesto.
Höcke, Thuringian AfD state leader and parliamentary group leader, an outstanding actor in the "wing" network, which he officially disbanded and classified as right-wing extremist by the protection of the constitution, continues to play his old role under new conditions.
Höcke no longer has Andreas Kalbitz at his side, the former "wing" puller who organized his work in the background.
Kalbitz is out, lost his membership after a board decision in May of last year, at the instigation of co-party leader Jörg Meuthen.
But Höcke doesn't need a Kalbitz in Dresden, it seems, to set his points.
He has the Bundestag election campaign firmly in view, his main concern is the external impact.
One moves "not in the legal sphere", but "in the political sphere", Höcke justified a motion on Sunday with which the "rejection of any family reunification for refugees" was included in the election manifesto.
You have to send a signal that will be noticed by the voters, he said.
In the draft of the program commission it was even softer: The entry of recognized refugees should be allowed "only under strict conditions".
The party conference in Dresden, at which the AfD with the advertising slogan »Germany.
But presented normally «, even at times is anything but normal.
Against the will of Meuthen and Gauland, who had otherwise been at odds since May about how to deal with the Kalbitz case, the delegates decided to include a passage in the election manifesto for Germany to leave the EU.
A sign of how much the party is moving to the edge.
Storch excitedly at the microphone
The issue of migration, a focus of the party since the refugee movement in 2015, is currently not a pressing issue for many people.
The AfD, however, devoted itself to him in detail in Dresden, especially Höcke.
Things didn't always go smoothly.
On Sunday, Höcke campaigned for an application calling for strict access rules based on a Japanese immigration model.
But when the paper was passed, it was noticed what it said.
AfD Vice Beatrix von Storch went to the microphone excitedly because the delegates had also decided on an immigration moratorium for people outside the EU in the application.
"Nobody read that," she said upset.
In fact, the amendment proposed by Hessian right winger Andreas Lichert, once also in the "wing", did not only contain the Japan proposal.
It also said that »investors with an investment volume of five million euros or more« were »exempted«.
You are now sending out the message that people who could raise less than five million euros could no longer come to the EU, rages von Storch, a fellow campaigner on the side of the economic liberal Meuthen.
The top management became hectically active, and finally a new proposal was formulated in which the five million demand was dropped, but the Japanese model remained.
The paper bears the names of the honorary chairman Alexander Gauland, including von Storchs and von Höcke.
A large majority agrees, there is applause with relief - this avoids an internal crisis.
Right wingers are active
It is not only Höcke who is actively involved from the right wing group in Dresden.
In cooperation with the Saxon-Anhalt state parliament member Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, another leading networker in the former "wing", the far right tried to enforce parts of their content in the election program - but not always with complete success.
Tillschneider can also often be seen at the microphone in the exhibition hall, for example when applying for a "moderate liberalization of gun law".
Endangered persons are to be issued with a “gun license” more easily than before if there is evidence of danger.
Who is "much more endangered than the general public by attacks on life and limb than an AfD member of the state parliament or a member of the Bundestag?" Asks Tillschneider.
The first vote ends with a stalemate: 50 to 50 percent, has to be repeated twice due to technical errors, in the end the application is rejected, but referred to the responsible technical committee for further debate.
Some people wondered what the headlines would have been if the motion had made it onto the electoral platform.
"The AfD wants to arm itself," said the parliamentary manager in the AfD parliamentary group, Götz Frömming, against Tillschneider's request.
The "wing" may officially no longer exist, but its network seems to continue to function.
Take Saxony-Anhalt as an example: there has been a dispute over the admission of new members with the federal board for weeks.
With Christian Waldheim, the federal executive had appointed a representative for the right-wing regional association, but he lost his office in Dresden after regional chief Martin Reichardt complained about him in the exhibition hall that Waldheim had neither called nor involved him.
In Dresden, federal vice-president Stephan Brandner finally becomes the new representative for Saxony-Anhalt, once also in the "wing" and not a friend of co-boss Meuthen (read details about Meuthen and Brandner here).
The far right are active in Dresden, not just behind the scenes.
On Saturday, when the AfD member of the Bundestag Karsten Hilse fought for a corona resolution, Höcke rushed to his aid.
Hilse, a policeman, was briefly arrested at a demonstration by Corona deniers in Berlin last year. In November, he received a reprimand in the Bundestag for wearing a T-shirt with the words "lateral thinking" under his jacket.
The resolution, which will be adopted in Dresden, bears his signature: The "responsible citizens" should be free to decide "to what extent they want to protect themselves" and should refrain from using "any, even indirect, compulsion" to have vaccinations, tests or apps .
What had Höcke explained before?
A "political sign" must go out from Dresden with the Corona resolution.
