The extreme right is hoping for a “patriotic turn” in the elections this summer and fall. That’s why the magazine “Compact” organizes AfD-affiliated “people’s festivals” – and the “Free Saxons” want to position themselves alongside the party.
Right from the start it’s about “the party with the three letters”. The AfD, shouts the moderator, has “the damn duty and responsibility to take our country back.” We will ensure this “together”. The people on the beer benches in front of the stage cheer.
A little less than 300 came to the train station square in Sonneberg in Thuringia this Saturday evening. The right-wing extremist “Compact” magazine has promised a “people’s festival” – with “Compact and AfD up close and personal.”
In an advance announcement, “Compact” already dreamed of “AfD sole governments” in Thuringia and Saxony, given the good poll results. The aim of a tour is to help before the local and state elections “where the AfD’s forces are not sufficient.”
The AfD has announced that Petr Bystron – the European candidate who is currently facing corruption allegations – and Doris von Sayn-Wittgenstein will be speakers in Sonneberg. Moderator Egbert Ermer used to be in the party himself, as did guest André Poggenburg.
Covert election advertising for the AfD?
None of them are frightened by the fact that, according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, “Compact” regularly spreads “anti-Semitic, anti-minority, historical revisionist and conspiracy ideological content.” The magazine itself sees itself as the largest medium of “resistance” with a supposedly sold circulation of 40,000 issues.
Editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer says on stage that in 2024 it’s about “chasing those up there away.” He calls the federal government “traitors to the fatherland.” But the “Blue Wave” is only advertising for a “patriotic change” in Germany, “not an election campaign,” said Elsässer.
There is a reason for the relativization: the AfD took the compact tour too far. The aim is to ensure that “these events cannot be attributed to the AfD,” the party executive told the ARD political magazine Contrasts with. Some AfD representatives withdrew from the tour. The Bundestag administration, in turn, is examining a possible party donation.
Alsatian says tagesschau.de, he had signed a cease and desist declaration. He will not advertise for the AfD. The fact that the name of the tour is “Blue Wave” also has nothing to do with the AfD’s party color: blue.
Make money from the political mood
For Alsatians, the AfD is also a business relationship. “Compact” sells special coins and booklets with the likeness of the Thuringian AfD state leader Björn Höcke and posters of a magazine cover with the party leader Alice Weidel. AfD parliamentary groups and regional associations sometimes place advertisements.
Elsässer says they are not dependent on the ads, but he admits that AfD content sells particularly well in the “Compact” shop. The silver “Höcke Taler” costs just under 70 euros with a material value of around 13 euros.
The editorial team also benefits from its proximity to the AfD: Georg Sesselmann, elected here in Sonneberg a year ago as Germany’s first AfD district administrator, was allowed to accompany “Compact” exclusively. Sesselmann is also attending the event this Saturday – out of “pure interest,” as he says when asked.
Song: “Vote for the AfD”
He declined the invitation to speak here due to legal concerns. Shortly afterwards, Sesselmann ends the conversation and, after being approached by a camera team from “Spiegel-TV”, leaves the square around the corner from his own official residence.
The district administrator not only missed his party colleague Petr Bystron, who explained that this was “not an election campaign” and that he only came as a book author, but also the appearance of Björn Winter alias Björn Banane. The singer became known for his appearances at “Querdenker” demonstrations. Most recently he has become closer to the AfD.
Winter’s repertoire in Sonneberg includes the new song “My Heart Beats Blue”, in which he shouts several times: “Vote for the AfD!” Jürgen Elsässer says that this was not discussed with him. Nevertheless, he lets Winter have his way twice.
“Free Saxony” want to establish themselves
Two days before the “Compact” stop in Sonneberg, the “Free Saxons” met in a village near Zwickau. The right-wing extremist party has invited celebrities to the local election campaign: Andreas Kalbitz, once the head of the ethnic “wing”, but expelled from the AfD four years ago.
According to the “Leipziger Volkszeitung”, Kalbitz explains to listeners that the “Free Saxons” have filled a gap left by the AfD and are now a possible coalition partner.
The Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the “Free Saxons” as definitely right-wing extremist. The party openly advocates a “revolution” and is a key driver behind Corona and asylum protests. Several members were or are also active in the NPD successor party Die Heimat.
Ambivalent relationship
Party leader Martin Kohlmann often talks about the AfD. In an online discussion, Kohlmann said that the “Free Saxons” were the “peg” for the AfD. They should be prevented from forming a coalition with the CDU. He is striving for common majorities “against the quagmire” of the other parties.
According to the sociologist Johannes Kiess from the Leipzig Else Frenkel Brunswik Institute, the “Free Saxons” want to “keep or bring the AfD on an extreme right-wing anti-system course until it collapses.” The fact that the latter is pursued seriously is made a condition for cooperation.
The “Free Saxons” regularly criticize AfD representatives, and the AfD in turn has put the “Free Saxons” on its incompatibility list. And yet they appear together. In January, AfD member of the Bundestag Carolin Bachmann said at a demo organized by “Free Saxony” that they were working together “in resistance” – on the streets and in parliament.
“The ambivalence is wanted by both sides,” says sociologist Kiess. The mobilization of the “Free Saxons” through protests helps the AfD. The shift in discourse to the right by the AfD in turn helps the even more radical “Free Saxons”.
Majorities are not unreasonable
In the local elections in Saxony, the “Free Saxons” are now expected to run in all districts, independent cities and some smaller cities and municipalities. A spokesman said the party was aiming for double-digit results. In some municipalities they even want to become the strongest force.
The potential for this is there: in 2022, when the “Free Saxons” put up candidates for the first time in three district elections, they received around 10 percent – in one case even 20. However, the AfD did not run in that district.
Johannes Kiess believes that joint majorities between Free Saxony and the AfD are possible in individual communities. He expects that both of them will then work together. There won’t be any major differences in the election campaign either.
The situation is different in the state elections. According to the spokesman, the “Free Saxons” have already drawn up a list for these too. However, a decision about whether to run should only be made after the local elections.
If that were to happen, it would be “fatal” for the AfD, says sociologist Johannes Kiess. She could miss the votes for the “Free Saxons” in the fight for direct mandates and the symbolically important first place ahead of the CDU.