Before the AfD party congress: Meuthen wants to retain political influence

Status: October 12, 2021 2 p.m.

After the announcement that he wanted to give up his office, the AfD chairman Meuthen has now made it clear: He wants to keep his influence – against internal party opponents. Now the struggle to succeed Meuthen begins.

The outgoing AfD co-chairman Jörg Meuthen wants to continue to influence the fate of the party even after the announced withdrawal from his leadership position. The joy of his internal party opponents will only last a short time, he told the portal t-online. “If you think that now you are rid of me, you are mistaken. They will notice very quickly that I am not gone. This is not a retreat.”

On Monday Meuthen had announced in a circular to all party members that he would no longer be available for the top post when the party executive committee was elected at the end of the year. He did not give specific reasons for his step in the letter, but already announced that he would continue his political work. Meuthen is a MEP.

Right wing currents have been misjudged for a long time

With regard to his successor at the party leadership, Meuthen does not assume that the Thuringian state chief Björn Höcke, who is assigned to the radical party wing, will run for the federal executive committee at the party congress in December. “The media attaches a weight to him that de facto does not have at all,” said Meuthen.

He also admitted that he had long misjudged the right wing tendency of the party around Höcke. The protection of the Constitution observes the current as a right-wing extremist endeavor.

Member of the Bundestag Lucassen for single point

The AfD member of the Bundestag Rüdiger Lucassen, meanwhile, spoke out in favor of a single point. The shared chairmanship was a mistake, said Lucassen in the Deutschlandfunk. Meuthen and Tino Chrupalla would have paralyzed each other. A leadership of the party was not possible, said the chairman of the AfD in North Rhine-Westphalia. He added that Meuthen deserves respect. With his decision he paved the way for a “consensual party congress” in December.

The MEP Meuthen has been at the head of the AfD since July 2015. In the past two years, he has advocated a more moderate course for the AfD, after initially supporting Höcke. With this change of strategy, he made enemies with the radical wing of the party.

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