Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel will be joint AfD leaders in the future. At the party’s federal conference in Riesa, Saxony, a relatively small majority (53.4%) confirmed Chrupalla in office on Saturday for another two years. Weidel moves from deputy party leader to co-spokesperson with equal rights. She received 67.3 percent. In addition, three of Chrupalla’s preferred candidates were nominated as MPs.
Together, Chrupalla and Weidel now lead both the parliamentary group in Berlin and the federal party. Perhaps also to show that they can work together without any problems, they proposed themselves as candidates for the top job. The model of success in the parliamentary group will be “mirrored in the party”, Weidel said. She criticized the work of the last federal council, to which she belonged as a deputy: “You can’t do worse”.
Chrupalla spoke of a “departure” after the election. The objective is to leave the past and the dispute behind. “The Meuthen era ended today,” he said. Representatives of Meuthen’s more moderate camp – former co-chief Jörg Meuthen had left the party in January – have recently repeatedly criticized Chrupalla, among other things because of the loss of votes to the AfD in state elections. The new former party leader said: “From now on we have the center party (…), and we represent them here in our leadership”.
The 47-year-old received 287 out of 538 votes cast. His opponent Norbert Kleinwächter won 195 votes (36.3%) – a respectable success for the representative of the more moderate camp. 55 delegates voted against the two candidates. There was an abstention.
360 of the 538 delegates voted for Weidel. 111 delegates (20.8 percent) voted for his opponent, MEP Nicolaus Fest. 64 voters voted against the two candidates, three abstained.
Delegates changed the AfD bylaws on Friday, so theoretically individual leadership is also possible in the future. Thuringia’s head of state and right wing of the party, Björn Höcke, campaigned for this. However, the party congress voted on Saturday to leave him in a dual-leadership this time around.
At the delegates’ meeting, which runs until Sunday, the entire federal executive board, which lastly consisted of 13 members, will be relocated. This will also decide the future direction of the AfD – depending on how many representatives of the respective current party can secure a seat on the body.
The party congress elected three candidates that Chrupalla wanted in the inner circle of leaders: Deputy Stephan Brandner, who belongs to the state association of Thuringia, was confirmed in office with 72.4%. In addition to him, deputy Peter Boehringer (55.4%) and his parliamentary colleague Mariana Harder-Kühnel (74.6%) were elected deputies by Chrupalla and Weidel. Boehringer and Brandner announced in their candidacy speeches a “homogeneous federal executive council” with a view to the party’s infighting in the past. Harder-Kühnel criticized “haters of Germany”. She called for party leadership to work together “as a team”.
Chrupalla has been in charge since November 2019. In his first election at the party congress in Braunschweig at the time, he won 54.5% of the vote. The Saxon master craftsman led the AfD single-handedly after the departure of former co-chief Jörg Meuthen. Meuthen certified the AfD as an increasingly radical course. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the party as a suspected right-wing extremist.
Critics within the party, who consider themselves to be from the moderate camp, have openly attacked the party leader after the recent loss of votes in several state elections and accused him, among other things, of failing to score in the West. They also criticize Chrupalla’s course as being too pro-Russian and associate it with leaving the party.
Chrupalla’s opponent Kleinwächter said in his entry speech that “we urgently need to get out of the low we’re in.” He advocated professionalism, unity, discipline and a new style of external communication and insisted on a “liberal-conservative” course for the AfD.
Chrupalla campaigned for differentiation between the Union and the FDP. “We want to make the CDU and the FDP superfluous,” she said. CDU party leader Friedrich Merz is a “green wolf in black sheep’s clothing”. The AfD does not participate in “vaccination, war and open borders”. According to his own statements, the 47-year-old wants to lead the AfD on a “free and social” course within the next two years.
Given the loss of votes in the last state elections, Weidel appealed to delegates: “We are not going to let each setback bring us down.” She called for more unity and said, “Let’s stop the baseless accusations in public.” The AfD is not a discontinued model. “The AfD is the party of the future.” Weidel called the party a “needed corrective in the encrusted party scene”.
According to police, just over 300 counter-protesters gathered in front of the conference site on Saturday for a demonstration. The banners said “Against” and “No Alternative for Germany”. Many protesters sought shelter in the shade under trees at the edge of the parking lot in front of the Sachsenarena because of the heat.