Status: 06/18/2022 15:14
Tino Chrupalla remains the leader of the AfD party. At the party’s federal conference in Riesa, he received a good 53% of the votes cast. Alice Weidel will be the second president – she received a good 67 percent of the vote.
Tino Chrupalla was re-elected as party leader at the AfD party’s federal conference in Riesa, Saxony. The 47-year-old prevailed in the election with 53.45 percent against the only opposition candidate, Norbert Kleinwaechter, a member of the Bundestag. 10.2 percent of delegates voted for “neither” in the election.
Alice Weidel becomes the second president. Delegates then voted for them with a good 63%. Candidate Nicolaus Fest received about 20 percent. Previously, delegates had decided to keep the dual leadership for another two years. However, they changed the AfD statutes in such a way that, in theory, a single leader would be possible in the future. Thuringia’s head of state and right wing of the party, Björn Höcke, campaigned for this.
Chrupalla and Weidel are the new AfD leadership duo
Markus Spieker, ARD Berlin, daily news at 12:50 pm, June 18, 2022
three elected deputies
Former party deputy Stephan Brandner was elected as deputy by the two party leaders with 72.4 percent, deputy Peter Boehringer (55.4 percent) and fellow MP Mariana Harder-Kühnel (74.6 percent) in the inner circle of AfD leaders.
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 and Kleinwächter call for “more discipline”
In his candidacy speech, Chrupalla targeted his opponents within the party and made serious accusations against them. “I’m the federal spokesman for the bases and if I’m attacked, it’s just to silence the bases,” he said. “I won’t allow it.” He complained of “sneaky” attacks on himself and “wing fights” at the previous federal executive council. There should be more discipline in the AfD in the future.
In his candidacy speech, Kleinwächter had campaigned for the separation of the party and the chairman from the parliamentary group: This would allow incumbents to devote themselves “with full force” to their respective tasks. Kleinwächter complained that the AfD gave an image of disunity. “We need professionalisation, we need unity, we need discipline,” said the Brandenburg member of the Bundestag.
Weidel 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.”
Chrupalla led the party alone after the departure of former co-boss Jörg Meuthen. Meuthen certified the AfD as an increasingly radical course. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution also 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. You have to “escape the party of angry citizens”. They also criticized Chrupalla’s course for being too pro-Russian and associated it with leaving the party.
Chrupalla and Weidel win party leadership elections
Katrin Aue, ARD Berlin, June 18, 2022 1:50 pm