Germany’s AfD chooses new leaders amid growing identity crisis

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) meets this weekend in Saxony to pick new leaders — and choose its political direction — after a run of election defeats, a disastrous pandemic and an unflattering new documentary.

The AfD, originally an anti-bailout movement that morphed into a xenophobic anti-immigration grouping, is struggling to maintain visibility and support — squeezed between more moderate and extremist political rivals.

Unresolved tensions between moderate and extremist wings are likely to flare up again over the weekend and influence the choice of a new leadership duo.

Steady at 10 per cent in national polls, the AfD has twice that support in eastern regions — but a precipitous slide in western German support is gathering pace.

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In last month’s state election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), home to one in five Germans, the party scraped over the 5 per cent hurdle for parliamentary representation. In the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, the party failed to return to parliament.

“We have lost 10 elections in a row because we have a style and communications problem,” said Norbert Kleinwächter a 36-year-old teacher member of the party’s moderate wing. He hopes to replace the long-serving moderate Jörg Meuthen, the former leader who left the party in frustration with its slide towards extremism. Kleinwächter’s pitch to delegates: “We have to be more pro-active in seizing on and explaining issues and be more positive in our approach to voters, instead of just speaking to radicals.”

But the influence of moderate voices is declining within the AfD amid a surge in support for the more extremist co-leader Thilo Chruppala. The popular Saxon politician is hoping to be re-elected as co-leader, possibly alongside extremist Bundestag floor co-leader Alice Weidel.

After a poor run of elections, and the decline of the hot-button immigration issue, they are under pressure to present a coherent strategy to reverse the decline.

During the pandemic, Chrupalla and Weidel tried and failed to ally themselves with the anti-lockdown, Covid-sceptic groupings — some of whom have now formed their own regional alliances even more extreme than the AfD.

Pro-Moscow leanings

Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the AfD’s pro-Moscow leanings more of a liability than an asset — even among a sizeable Nato-critical German electorate.

A brief ray of sunshine for Chrupalla this week was a constitutional court ruling in the party’s favour and against ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.

Two years ago she described as “inexcusable” and “a bad day for democracy” a voting alliance between the AfD and liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the eastern state of Thuringia. In a post-election upset, their pact elected an FDP politician as state premier — for three days — until he resigned.

The Karlsruhe court ruled that Merkel’s remarks violated the AfD’s right to fair electoral competition.

“After such a slap in the face her resignation would have been appropriate,” said Chrupalla, “but, as an ex-chancellor, Merkel is lucky to have been spared that”.

Last year’s departure of Merkel, an AfD hate figure in the refugee crisis, has robbed the party of another populist lightning rod in the last months.

Compounding the AfD’s woes is a new fly-on-the-wall documentary exposing the in-fighting and insecurities inside the party. The film-maker followed AfD politicians for three years, recording strategy meetings where new AfD councillors are shown PowerPoint slides on how to “torpedo” town council meetings with “endless questions, mud-slinging”.

“In the end it’s not just the party’s anti-democratic ethos that is on display,” said left-wing Tageszeitung. “With this, the AfD digs its own grave.”