So soon someone will be gone again with the AfD, at least away from the top. For a long time Jörg Meuthen seemed like the ideal chairman for his party. He embodied the Janus faculty of the far right party, which he led for six years. It was exemplary of her method of being decent and civil, but relying on disgusting resentment and bad polemics for success. That appealed even to the particularly extreme forces in the AfD, with whom he allied in order to establish himself at the top. They were able to build networks under his leadership. Meuthen defended the extremist Björn Höcke and paid homage to the honorary chairman Alexander Gauland, who had drifted to the right. When he finally opposed the shift to the right, it was, as his withdrawal now shows, too late.
With this chairman, you never knew exactly what was conviction and what was more opportunism. He was able to come to a head and polemicize and used that for his career – against the inner-party opponents and what he called “left-red-green-sappy 68 Germany”. And so it was a little bizarre when he suddenly wanted to be one of the moderates almost two years ago – a description that is a contradiction in terms for the excessively right-wing party.
In fact, some evil extremists have been excluded. But with every new attempt Meuthen had to realize that the AfD was not following him. Parts of the party became enemy territory for him, and he was largely isolated among the small circle of prominent leaders. This has to do with the fact that this party refuses to allow itself to be led and does not want to delimit itself to the right. With the general election, the right wing got a boost. A showdown was now expected for the next party congress, perhaps the break between the camps. But with Meuthen’s departure, the so-called moderates lose their leadership figure. You are obviously in a losing position.