Status: 08.08.2021 4:21 p.m.
Tino Chrupalla has come a long way: from master painter to AfD top candidate. He now has to prove himself in the federal election campaign – also in his party. Today he was in ARD summer interview.
Midsummer, in July: Tino Chrupalla sits in a shirt and jacket in the outdoor pool in the small town of Ostritz, right on the Polish border. Next to him are the other applicants for the direct mandate in the constituency of Görlitz. In his back the swimming pool. In front of him are a few dozen citizens who can ask the applicants questions.
A classic election campaign date – one that Chrupalla clearly feels comfortable with. This is where he is at home, and this is where he is known: the master painter who chased away his seat in the Bundestag from Michael Kretschmer, meanwhile Prime Minister in Saxony, in the last federal election.
CDU sends candidate Oest into the race
It is now up to Chrupalla to defend the direct mandate in September. The CDU sends Florian Oest into the race: early 30s, family man, born in Görlitz. He studied law and business administration, is eloquent, charismatic and aggressive. At the discussion round in Ostritz, he keeps addressing Chrupalla, saying he should be specific: What has Chrupalla achieved for the region in the Bundestag in recent years?
Chrupalla takes refuge in the role of victim. As an opposition, you have little leeway. That evening the laughs are sometimes on Oests, sometimes applause on Chrupalla’s side. The other applicants hardly play a role. It amounts to a neck and neck race.
Suit carrier in the 7-series BMW
Chrupalla apparently does not want to take the risk of losing the prestigious seat in the Bundestag. He was elected to first place on the Saxon AfD state list. His return to the Bundestag is almost certain. Nevertheless, he would be seriously affected if he lost his constituency. Because Chrupalla also has to prove himself within his party. In the violent power struggle of the AfD, every weakness is used.
For a long time it went smoothly for him: only joined the AfD in 2015, then the success against Kretschmer and a little later even party chairman. But not a few in the AfD believe to this day that Chrupalla is overwhelmed with his role. In his first few months as party leader in particular, he did not look good in public appearances, especially in comparison to co-party leader Meuthen, who as a professor was used to speaking in front of a large audience. A few media training courses later, Chrupalla tours Germany as the top candidate.
He has changed: from a master painter to a suit wearer who is chauffeured in a 7-series BMW. In the party, whose credo is to want to be particularly close to the ordinary citizens, this causes some malicious comments.
Packers with open construction sites
Chrupalla’s actions in the election campaign also raise questions. What is the subject now with which the AfD wants to score? There is constant talk of disorientation in the environment of the parliamentary group. The top candidates Chrupalla and Alice Weidel are expected to give a signal of departure. Even if the AfD often doubts survey results, it will have taken notice: Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, the party has lost four percentage points.
Craftsman Chrupalla, who likes to present himself as hands-on, has numerous open construction sites. The power struggle within the party continues to escalate. Chrupalla, who announced last summer that he wanted to mediate, is now on the side of the extremes for many in the party. The party leadership was also unable to avert the observation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. It was initially stopped by a lawsuit by the AfD. A final judgment is still pending.
Grown up politically in a radical party environment
Chrupallas national association is already classified as a suspected case with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. For example, on the Saxon state list for the federal election there are almost exclusively candidates who are close to the officially disbanded, right-wing extremist wing. Siegbert Dröse, for example, number three on the list, posed for a photo with his hand on his heart in front of Wolfsschanze. Or Andreas Harlaß, fifth place, who may even be called a neo-Nazi by court ruling.
Chrupalla has not yet publicly distanced itself from these candidates. In this radical party environment, he grew up politically. Chrupalla depends on the support of his party friends in the east. The next challenge awaits after the general election: the party leadership will be re-elected at the party congress at the end of the year.
Matthias Deiß, deputy studio manager of the ARD capital studio, interviewed the AfD top candidate Chrupalla in the ARD summer interview in the report from Berlin that Das Erste airs today at 6:05 p.m.