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AfD federal party conference in Kalkar in North Rhine-Westphalia on November 29, 2020: party leaders Meuthen and Chrupalla
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
The AfD is proud of that to this day: the right-wing populists have already held federal party conferences twice during the pandemic.
Most recently in the spring in Dresden, under the corona protective measures that were valid at the time, such as distance rules and mask requirements in the hall.
Overnight stays in hotels in the Saxon state capital were also possible with restrictions.
But the current pandemic development, which is developing rapidly, could possibly endanger the federal party conference in Wiesbaden, Hesse, on December 11th and 12th. Should the 2G rule for events and the hotel industry be introduced in Hesse - recovered or vaccinated - all those AfD delegates who are not vaccinated would probably be at a disadvantage. Either because the 2G rule would apply to entering the hall or to hotels and guest houses. Many would then probably have to do without their journey, because many members of the AfD reject the Corona measures and are not vaccinated.
The AfD federal board wants to deal with the problem this Friday, as the two co-chairs Jörg Meuthen and Tino Chrupalla assured at the request of SPIEGEL. »There is the firm will of the entire federal executive committee to hold the federal party conference as scheduled on December 11th and 12th. to take place in Wiesbaden «, explain the two AfD politicians in their joint letter. The AfD has already twice succeeded in holding party conferences as face-to-face events "despite the adversities of Covid-19 through extremely disciplined behavior on the part of all participants." Meuthen and Chrupalla assume that the AfD will be able to hold its federal party conference in Wiesbaden for the third time in December in the pandemic.
It is an important party congress, after all, a new board of directors has to be elected according to schedule. It is already clear that co-party leader Meuthen will not run again, while Chrupalla wants to continue. One of the possible partners in the dual leadership on the side of Saxony is the former chairman of the budget committee in the Bundestag, Peter Boehringer, who comes from the Bavarian regional association.
The AfD's concerns that this election cannot take place are not unfounded. A state party conference of the AfD in Brandenburg was only recently canceled. After an intense debate, the local AfD state executive decided to cancel the event in the city of Prenzlau, which was scheduled for mid-November. According to the more stringent 2G rule in Brandenburg, only vaccinated and convalescent people are allowed to stay in hotels. "That would have caused big problems for a large part of our members at a two-day party conference," said AfD deputy chief Daniel Freiherr von Lützow at the beginning of this week. He had estimated that most of the AfD members of the Brandenburg state association were not vaccinated. The state executive did not want to expect them toHaving to commute for hours to her place of residence for the party congress in the Uckermark. The rejection also postponed the election of the AfD state chairman again.
Is there a threat of something similar to the federal party?
In Wiesbaden, Hesse, the lease with the AfD for the hall - the RheinMain-CongressCenter (RMCC) - was only approved in August.
After an extensive examination of the factual and legal situation, the city's legal office came to the conclusion that the party was entitled to the use of the rooms and that a refusal to conclude a contract would be illegal, according to the Wiesbaden city administration at the time.
It is not yet possible to predict which Corona rules will apply in Wiesbaden in December for the hall and for hotels and pensions.
A request from SPIEGEL to the responsible health department in Wiesbaden has not yet been answered.
AfD continues with the campaign against new corona measures
In their campaign against the corona measures, part of the AfD is not deterred by the latest developments in the pandemic. While co-party leader Jörg Meuthen and the AfD honorary chairman Alexander Gauland have been vaccinated for a long time, the AfD co-parliamentary group leader Chrupalla gave a speech on Thursday against the new corona measures of the future traffic light coalition. He accused the SPD, Greens and FDP, they continued with the "panic policy" of the previous government, spoke of an "enemy image of the unvaccinated" who were held responsible for everything and of "almost religious" calls for vaccinations.
Chrupalla had only recently recovered from a corona infection and was therefore unable to attend the constituent session of parliament in October.
To this day, he has evaded questions about his vaccination status - at least in public.
This time, the seat of his co-parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel in the Bundestag remained empty - she recently had to go into quarantine due to a corona infection.
Weidel, who is also the AfD vice-president, had repeatedly declared during the election campaign that she was not vaccinated against Corona because the health consequences of a vaccination could not be assessed.
It was not until Thursday that around a dozen AfD MPs sat in a Bundestag tribune and protested - as at the constituent session on October 26 - against the 3G rule (vaccinated, recovered or tested) in the plenary hall.
