Anton Baron new AfD faction leader: Sänze on confrontation

Created: 2023-01-10Updated: 2023-01-10 5:52 p.m

Members of the AfD parliamentary group, including the parliamentary group leader Bernd Gögel (r) and the member of the state parliament Emil Sänze (1st row left), in the Stuttgart state parliament.

© Marijan Murat/dpa

Nobody expected him, but he surprisingly prevailed: Anton Baron is now at the head of the AfD in the state parliament.

He promises quiet work.

But his election already shows that the faction remains a divided group.

Stuttgart – MP Anton Baron is the new chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in Baden-Württemberg.

The 35-year-old prevailed on Tuesday after several run-off elections against Parliamentary Secretary Emil Sänze.

Baron is an industrial engineer and has been a member of parliament for the Hohenlohe constituency since 2016.

In an interview with the dpa, he announced continuity in terms of content.

"I've always followed a middle-class conservative course," he said.

Parliamentary work should be "tough on the matter, but constructive".

"I am very surprised and pleased about the trust of my group colleagues, who have thus decided on a generational change," said Baron.

Younger MPs had been calling for a generational change at the head of the AfD parliamentary group for a long time.

One of the candidates for the presidency was Miguel Klauß (36).

According to Baron, age did not play a role in the elections.

The choice between him and Sänze was very close, the group said.

The chief post had to be filled because the old faction leader Bernd Gögel had recently announced his resignation due to a penalty order due to allegations of undeclared work.

The parliamentary group then decided on Tuesday to re-elect the entire board “for a fresh start in terms of personnel” and at the same time to reduce the board from seven to five posts.

It was decided on an ad hoc basis to re-elect the entire parliamentary group executive committee, thus taking into account "the demand for rejuvenation", said Göppingen MP Hans-Jürgen Goßner, who was elected one of the three deputy parliamentary group chairmen.

MPs Udo Stein (39) and Rainer Podeswa (65) were confirmed as parliamentary group deputies.

Daniel Lindenschmid (30) from the Backnang constituency was appointed the new Parliamentary Secretary.

Baron was once the parliamentary manager of the parliamentary group - Sänze had coaxed this office from him in April 2022.

Now Sänze no longer holds any office on the board.

Before the election, the 72-year-old had announced that if he won the election, he wanted to lead the parliamentary group on a louder and tougher course.

Baron disagreed.

"We want to convince with good policy," he said on Tuesday.

He wanted to continue the group in the style of Bernd Gögel.

"Gögel has left very big footsteps, that will be a big challenge for me," he said.

Gögel brought the group into calm waters, which he would like to continue.

For years, a power struggle raged among the AfD deputies between moderate forces and supporters of the right-wing fringe.

While Gögel is considered moderate, Sänze is attributed to the völkisch-national wing of the party.

In the past legislative period, the AfD caused a lot of commotion in the plenum and even prompted police operations.

But the new chairman doesn't want to know anything about factional fights.

Baron criticized that it was always an external attribution by the press.

He doesn't believe in the right-left scheme.

Asked about the Thuringian right-wing politician Björn Höcke, Baron said: "He is an education expert, a thoroughly good specialist politician." Baron admitted, however, with a view to his party colleagues in the east, that there was a different social character there.

Immediately after the presidential election on Tuesday, it became apparent that there was not much consensus among the AfD deputies.

After his defeat, Sänze attacked the new faction leader.

"I've been in the state parliament with him since 2016, but I didn't notice any profile," said Sänze of the German Press Agency when asked what Baron stood for.

Baron had always been a "passer" who snuggled up to Starke, said Sänze.

"I have an ambivalent relationship with him because he often couldn't keep up intellectually - but he's a nice guy." Baron says he's liberal, but he's not a liberal.

Saenze said that liberality means recognizing other opinions.

Sänze announced that he now wanted to concentrate on party work.

"I can now devote more time to the state association." Since early summer 2022, he has been leading the state association together with Markus Frohnmaier, member of the Bundestag, who co-founded the youth organization "Junge Alternative".

dpa