analysis
As of: 03/09/2022 3:22 p.m
After the Cologne verdict, the AfD is trying to reassure its members. Because the concern is great. Is the party threatened with another step into isolation?
“Of course we are disappointed” – AfD party leader Tino Chrupalla makes no secret of his state of mind. He has just come out of the crystal hall in the Cologne exhibition halls, where the administrative court has moved because of the great public interest. For years, the AfD has argued that the action taken by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is purely politically motivated.
Chrupalla also refers to this in his first interview after the verdict on Tuesday evening. Many party friends will do the same in the hours that follow. Some get frustrated on the phone, others like Christina Baum, member of the Bundestag, publicly via social media. “The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is nothing more than ‘government protection’,” she writes.
Gottschalk: “This is a political verdict”
But they overlook one thing: In Cologne, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution did not make a decision. It is the administrative court that gives the constitutional protection rights. That scratches the arguments of the party enormously. One possible reaction: the independence of the judiciary is now also being questioned. “This is a political judgment,” says AfD member of the Bundestag Kay Gottschalk ARD Capital Studio.
He thinks it’s absurd that the administrative court recognizes the “numerous false allegations made by the protection of the constitution”. “Crazy,” he pushes afterwards. In the middle of the night, the AfD federal executive sent a circular email to all members. It’s an attempt to calm down a little. The email suits him ARD Capital Studio in front.
Right at the beginning, a statement is quoted that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution made during the hearing at the suggestion of the court – that it currently does not intend to treat the AfD “as a secured extremist effort”. But the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had not previously announced this for the entire party.
Trust in the AfD – a rare commodity
Not a word in the email about what the judge actually clarified in the oral verdict: “There are sufficient factual indications of anti-constitutional efforts within the AfD,” according to the court’s press release.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has also proven this in reports and the associated collections of material. Therefore, the entire AfD can be classified as a suspected case. This means that constitutional protection officers are allowed to monitor the party with the help of intelligence services. It has always been a popular game in the AfD to accuse the hated party friend of being a spy. The fact that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution could soon actually recruit such people and be allowed to pay money for information should cause unrest. Trust has always been a rare commodity in the AfD.
appeal allowed
However, the last word has not yet been spoken, the AfD federal board continues in its email. The appeal is allowed, a decision will be made promptly. Chrupalla had already said something similar in Cologne and added: “We are surprised.” Not that surprising, however. Last week, the party launched an internal “call to civil servants, judges, soldiers and police officers” by email.
They have some of these in the AfD, and they have been worried for a long time about whether they could get into trouble with their employer if they were observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
“Don’t be misled by misinformation,” says the appeal ARD Capital Studio present. The officials or employees of the public service would have to fear neither disciplinary measures nor a reduction in pensions due to membership in the AfD – according to their own legal assessment. The text was signed by the members of the Bundestag Joachim Wundrak (ret. Lieutenant General), Gerold Otten (colonel dRaD) and Nicole Höchst (retired government school director).
The worries of the party
It is one of the worries in the party that there is now an exodus. Party members who could resign because of the observation. Others now fear being politically isolated even further because of the verdict. “That carries the risk of exaggerated reactions,” writes an influential AfD member of the Bundestag, who is attributed to those who describe themselves as “moderate”. And of course everyone in the party is concerned about what the intelligence agency is doing with the voters, especially in the West, where the AfD has had to struggle more.
Much to discuss
State elections are scheduled for this year in Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. The Eastern state associations, on the other hand, are likely to react more relaxed: In Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg or Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD has been observed for a long time. So far, this has not harmed the voters’ favor. “Quite the opposite,” says some there. Today, one day after the verdict, the AfD parliamentary group is coming to Oberhof in Thuringia for its multi-day retreat. They have enough to discuss anyway.
How does Chrupalla react?
Above all, their own position on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, which some AfD officials do not want to describe as such. But even if the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is not on the official agenda, many are curious to see how federal spokesman Chrupalla will deal with it. It is said from those around him that Chrupalla sent remarkably optimistic signals until the very end.
Now the party friends, who have been on the side of former co-boss Jörg Meuthens, are only too happy to point out a statement that Chrupalla only made to the dpa news agency at the beginning of the week. “If, in the opinion of the court, there are actually critical aspects that we also evaluate after a careful internal examination, then we will take care of them,” the party leader said. The court’s assessment has been available since Tuesday evening.