Jörg Meuthen’s withdrawal from AfD leadership – the press reviews

Withdrawal from party leadership
“Meuthen’s failure makes the story of normal AfD even more implausible”

From left: AfD federal spokesman Jörg Meuthen and the AfD top candidates in the federal election, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel

© Bernd von Jutrczenka / / Picture Alliance

Long-time AfD boss Jörg Meuthen is withdrawing from the party leadership. Commentators see this as a surrender to the radical forces in the party – and a further loss of importance for the so-called moderates.

After six and a half years, Jörg Meuthen no longer feels like it: The long-time AfD boss is withdrawing from the party leadership (the star reported). The constant balancing act between Berlin, Brussels and his home, the internal hostility. Perhaps the MEP also senses that there is no longer a majority for his rather moderate course in the AfD.

“Meuthen has to realize that he can no longer do anything,” comments “Der Tagesspiegel” on Meuthen’s withdrawal. Now let the party “confidently write off”, concludes the “world”. “With Meuthen’s departure, the so-called moderates lose their leadership figure,” says the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “You are obviously in a losing position.” The press reviews.

The media response to the Meuthen withdrawal: “The AfD is likely to put the party system under stress for a while”

“Rheinische Post”: “Meuthen’s role has always been that of the bourgeois mediator, the economics professor who committed to liberal-conservative motives. In truth, he has repeatedly had to come to terms with extremely right-wing positions and personal details, without which he would never have been in office for so long (…) It remains to be seen who will be proposed in the election for the new party chairmanship. It may be opaque maneuvers with unknown faces. Probably also new bourgeois fig leaf – similar to Jörg Meuthen. “

“Der Tagesspiegel”: “One should be careful not to glorify the long-standing party chairman. Meuthen is not innocent of the fact that the radical forces have been getting stronger in recent years He did not manage to take his own party with him can align. “

“The world”: “After the announcement of the AfD boss Jörg Meuthen that he will renounce the party chairmanship in the future, the AfD can confidently be written off politically But as a conservative force that enriches the political landscape, it is finally falling out. “

“Southgerman newspaper”: “With this chairman, you never knew exactly what was conviction and what was more opportunism. He was able to sharpen and polemicize and used that for his career – against opponents within the party and what he called the ‘left-red-green-sap’ 68s It was a bit bizarre when, almost two years ago, he suddenly wanted to be one of the moderates – a description that is a contradiction in terms for the excessively right-wing party. (…) With the federal elections the right wing got a boost. Now a showdown was expected for the next party congress, perhaps the break between the camps. But with Meuthen’s departure, the so-called moderates lose their leading figure. They are obviously in a losing position. “

“taz”: “But even if the image of the moderate was never covered by the facts: With Meuthen, the AfD had at least one with which they could fake a semblance of seriousness. (…) Meuthen’s failure makes the story of the normal AfD still more implausible than she was before. And a successor at the top of the party who could play the role of moderate more convincingly is not in sight. Alice Weidel was once considered moderate, but in the power struggle was ultimately closer to the wing than Meuthen. “

“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “The loss of more than a million second votes in the federal elections is also due to the fact that the co-chairman, who, like many top officials from the West, was unable to give the AfD an only halfway national-conservative-bourgeois paint officially disbanded ‘wings’ probably stronger than ever. Most of the four million citizens who voted for the AfD two weeks ago should not care that this development could call the protection of the Constitution into action. They did not vote for Meuthen, but a party because of its partially anti-constitutional program. That is the problem – and not the future of Meuthen. “

“Time online”: “When Meuthen consequently (and much too late) attempted to isolate the right-wing radicals, he himself was isolated. Now a fourth time a naive will be found who appears to be communicable to the outside and to Höcke and his formally dissolved national revolutionary wing to the inside integrated? Or do the confused bourgeoisie of the Meuthen camp – also because the party is now being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution – finally draw conclusions, which can basically only mean the immediate exit from the party? it is now emerging, does not mean its end. On the contrary, this party is likely to put the German party system under stress for a long time to come. “

fs / with material from the DPA news agency

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