Gerd Mannes achieved the AfD’s best result, but he probably doesn’t have a great career ahead of him in the group. He is considered to be somewhat moderate – and that could be exactly his problem.
The hall is packed, the significantly larger AfD faction is meeting for the first time. The atmosphere is great, every seat has a bottle of beer with a lucky horseshoe on it; a gift from one of the many new arrivals, a farrier by profession. The current and future AfD MP Gerd Mannes arrives shortly beforehand, with hardly any free chairs left. In this scene a good two weeks ago you can see how his gaze goes around. And you think you recognize some perplexity in this, so to speak: Where do you sit down now?