The state party conference in Stuttgart shows that the AfD does not need the protection of the constitution, which makes life difficult for it. She can do it herself.
Alice Weidel gave her last speech as chairwoman of the Baden-Württemberg AfD on Saturday. She didn’t sound like she was unduly sorry about her departure. Weidel is handing over a state association that is being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and which is so divided that one could almost call it dysfunctional. Two blocks face each other. It’s the old directional dispute, moderates against right-wing hardliners, but in Baden-Württemberg the camps are equally strong. In the end there is a destructive stalemate that cannot be resolved even with a lot of imagination.
This state association would not need any protection of the constitution, which makes life difficult for it. The party congress delegates managed it themselves. Distrust among the functionaries was enormous. Some doubted the functionality of the electronic tuning devices, others that the previous board had handled the party finances correctly. There were whistles, boos, insults. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought that the party congress of different parties was taking place here. Added to this is the apparently chronic longing to create chaos. Even on trivial procedural issues, the AfD cannot find a majority. She does not manage to treat party colleagues with respect. Decisions that have just been made are lapsed hours later. It is almost logical that there was not a single person in the entire state association who was able to rally a majority behind him for the office of chairman.
In dire need, the AfD has achieved dual leadership. Paradoxically, it is exactly the variant that no one in the party wanted because it evokes bad memories of the pre-Weidel era. At that time, a management duo quarreled publicly for months. In view of the fronts in the association, it doesn’t take much imagination to suspect that the self-mutilation is about to begin again.