A revealed secret meeting and large demonstrations against the right: To the outside world, the AfD initially reacted calmly and then went on the attack. But what does it look like inside the party?
The picture shows the FDJ torchlight procession for the 40th anniversary of the GDR in Berlin. The social media post says, among other things: “As a follower, you can rely on the German. He is flexible in this matter.” An employee of the AfD parliamentary group wrote this on Sunday, when around 100,000 people in Berlin demonstrated against right-wing extremism in front of the Bundestag. There are said to have been up to a million in total across Germany in the past few days.
AfD MPs such as deputy federal chairman Stephan Brandner diligently share the image. “November 1989. January 2024,” writes his parliamentary group colleague Jürgen Pohl on Facebook – which is strange since the torchlight procession took place on October 6, 1989.
Counterattack on the outside
The tone is set and it becomes rougher. Just last week, Alice Weidel had this to say ARD capital studio initially reacted calmly to the demonstrations. “If people think they have to demonstrate against the AfD, then that is their right,” she said.
The party itself is now posting on Facebook that Correctiv’s research into the meeting of radical right-wing circles and the mass demonstrations that followed were just a campaign against the AfD to distract from the citizen protests against the government – everything was “a transparent sleight of hand”: “It’s being constructed a scandal and mobilizes its own boarders, who then act as the center of society.”
The party is counterattacking externally. But what do the AfD officials, parliamentary group employees, state parliament members and the rank and file think about the current developments when the cameras are off?
“No one needs to complain afterwards”
2024 is a special year for the AfD: there are elections in three eastern German federal states, as well as the European elections, at a time when the party is reaching its highest levels in the polls. This is where the research appears that reveals which radical expulsion ideas AfD officials can get behind. All AfD members who agree to speak in the background – that is, if they are not mentioned by name – agree that in their eyes the story is completely, “exaggerated”, “inflated” or even “extremely exaggerated”.
However, an interesting difference is emerging: those who come from the more extreme regional branches of the AfD understand why a meeting at which the former head of the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, promotes his theses is problematic. “You don’t have such meetings with people like that in the current situation – then no one needs to complain afterwards if there is bad press,” says a member of parliament from Thuringia.
Sellner is also said to have talked about how “unassimilated” German citizens with a migration background could be pushed out of Germany. In terms of content, this is “typical identity crap that is so well known among employees,” says one who himself works for an AfD member of the Bundestag. He also believes that one or two people named in the research can do the same thing. He is surprised that the AfD is complaining that this story is being “inflated”: “Even if it were, we’ll do it the same way,” he says.
“It’s all an orchestrated action”
MPs from western associations, who are still counted among the more moderate in the AfD and who were close to the former party leader Jörg Meuthen, sound completely different. “This is all an orchestrated action to make citizens hysterical,” says one from the southwest. He never thought that such a bizarre form of defamation was possible in Germany.
Another from Hesse goes one step further: He has always been far from conspiracy theories, but he describes Correctiv as a “taxpayer-financed AfD medium of destruction.” It’s madness. If Germany doesn’t understand this, it will drive itself into the wall. He does not believe that the Correctiv research network does not accept government funding for investigative research or editorial work, as it explains itself. Despite the increasing distance from the party leadership in these AfD circles, it is clear how much many members have entrenched themselves in their AfD wagon – especially when the pressure from outside increases.
But they have problems explaining things when it comes to Roland Hartwig’s personality. Co-party leader Weidel’s personal advisor was at the meeting in Potsdam. A few days after the research was published, he lost his job. “The timing was strategically unwise,” says someone close to the AfD state executive in North Rhine-Westphalia. Of course Weidel had to protect himself, “who knows what else would have been published” – but it would look like an admission of guilt. It says she did not explain the step in the Bundestag faction. “Like many of my colleagues, I see no reason to fire Hartwig,” says one. But the big shaking of heads in her group doesn’t hurt Weidel.
Weidel in “pole position”
Many MPs have been complaining for a long time that their parliamentary group leader doesn’t take them along enough, works too little and when she does, she only does what she wants. “Most people didn’t even know that Hartwig Weidel was a speaker,” says an employee of an AfD member of the Bundestag. She could treat the official level however she wanted anyway – even though she owes them an explanation in the Hartwig case. It’s enough for Weidel that the base goes crazy when they come to the New Year’s reception.
Some people are also rolling their eyes at an alleged “Dexit distraction balloon” from Weidel. In an interview with the “Financial Times”, she surprisingly thought about a referendum on leaving the EU in Germany. However, none of these “strategic mistakes,” as AfD officials call them, caused lasting damage to Weidel. “One thing is becoming very clear right now,” says the MP from Thuringia: “When it comes to the top candidate for the federal election, which is already being fought over internally, she is clearly in pole position.”
Edgy sayings about the Demonstrations
When asked about the demonstrations against right-wing extremism throughout Germany, many people initially respond with similarly edgy statements, such as the FDJ torchlight procession comparison from social networks. “For me, these are the voters of the traffic lights, plus civil servants and NGO employees who see their skins floating away,” says the influential AfD member from North Rhine-Westphalia and adds another absurd historical comparison: “They are afraid of the conditions of 1933 and notice Not at all that they themselves are exemplary for 1933.”
Others speak in more nuanced terms: When so many people take to the streets, it makes an impression, says a member of the state parliament from the east. “We should probably rethink how we go public,” he says. Ultimately, the AfD cannot lead a government “if so many people are afraid of us.”
“Many were given the upper hand by the surveys”
Others also confirmed that the damage and uncertainty caused by the social headwind in the party was greater than many would admit to the outside world. “Many people were no longer used to opposition and had the upper hand thanks to the surveys,” says an AfD employee from the Bundestag. In addition, many saw their positions strengthened by the farmers’ protests and the hope that they had finally achieved the long-awaited normalization of the AfD.
Nevertheless, the mood, especially in the Eastern associations, seems to remain undimmed before the election year. “Soon those who can still afford it will go skiing, others will celebrate carnival – then history will be fine,” says an AfD local politician from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Then the local elections would be coming up in June in almost all eastern German federal states, which many people in the AfD would not even have on their radar because of the state and European elections. “They’ll be awesome,” he’s sure.