"Government participation realistic": AfD squints at the East
Created: 01/02/2023 12:28 p.m
By: Jens Kiffmeier
Sees her party on the up: co-boss Alice Weidel (AfD).
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
Brisk tones: The AfD wants to govern in East Germany from 2024 – and thinks that is feasible.
But does the CDU play along at all after the "Reichsbürger" raid?
Berlin – Prepare for the future: almost a year before the start of the super election year in East Germany, the AfD has reaffirmed its will to power and made a declaration of war.
Despite the lack of alliance options so far, the right-wing populist party sees the chance of participating in the government from 2024. "I think it's absolutely realistic," said co-head Alice Weidel of the
dpa
news agency .
In Saxony alone, the AfD and CDU together represented two-thirds of the electorate.
"You can't continue to refuse that forever." But is the Union really playing along?
Because according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD is drifting further and further to the right.
News from the AfD: Alice Weidel plans to participate in the government in East Germany from 2024
In 2024, new state parliaments will be elected in Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia.
According to surveys, the AfD is strongly represented in all three countries.
Almost ten years after their founding, the right-wing populists, according to their own statements, want to focus their strategy more on initial government participation in these regions.
"We are already preparing for the super elections in East Germany in 2024," said party leader Alice Weidel, "of course this is strategically relevant, because we are announcing the first government responsibility in an East German state."
AfD politicians will soon be celebrating an anniversary: Ten years after the founding of the party, the CDU wants to maintain the firewall
The AfD, which was recently noticed by a middle finger from an AfD politician, will soon be ten years old.
It was founded on February 6, 2013 in Oberursel, Hesse.
In state elections and federal elections, she was often able to achieve double-digit results.
But so far the party has been largely isolated.
Although individual right-wing conservative CDU supporters in some East German states are toying with the idea of working together, there is officially a kind of ban on cooperation in the Union.
When party leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) took over the party leadership, he spoke explicitly of a firewall that he wanted to build against the AfD.
When asked by dpa
, a CDU spokesman confirmed
this position: “We have a clear party conference decision.
Any cooperation with the AfD is excluded.
Our firewall to the right has to stand.”
AfD: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution certifies that the party has shifted to the right after the "Reichsbürger" raid
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns against working with the AfD.
Most recently, the raid on the "Reichsbürger" scene had revealed close connections between the right-wing populist party and a conspiratorial group.
In a large-scale action, including in Lower Saxony, the investigators had 25 people arrested.
The public prosecutor's office accuses them of being members of a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system.
The troop was led by the Hessian nobleman Heinrich XIII.
Prince Reuss.
Among those arrested was the judge and former AfD member of the Bundestag Birgit Malsack-Winkemann.
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The fact that there are also AfD sympathizers among the radical "Reich citizens" is nothing new for the constitutional protection officers.
Because similar fantasies about a revolution are circulating within the party – more than ever.
With regard to the AfD, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldewang, recently said: "It's going further to the right."
The authority has therefore already classified the party as a suspected right-wing extremist.
In politics, there is also a debate about a possible ban.
Despite a warning from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution: AfD is stable in the polls
However, this did not detract from the popularity of the party.
In the polls, it is stable in a double-digit range.
In the last Sunday question from infratest dimap, the AfD was at 15 percent, just behind the SPD and the Greens (both 18 percent) and well ahead of the FDP (six percent).
The strongest force at the moment would be the CDU.
Merz's party comes to 29 percent.