Ukraine war
AfD relies on peace doves – criticism in the Bundestag
AfD politician Alexander Gauland (archive image). photo
© Hannes P. Albert/dpa
With calls for “peace” on the subject of Ukraine, the AfD is trying to fill a political gap. A transparent manoeuvre, and Russia propaganda, say the other parties.
A delicate, white dove of peace with a green branch in its beak has recently been fluttering on the Facebook cover photo of AfD co-head Tino Chrupalla. “The Peace Party” is written underneath. In the Bundestag, the AfD parliamentary group held a “peace concert” with pieces by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff on Wednesday evening, and on Thursday the Bundestag debated an AfD motion for a “peace initiative” in Ukraine. Some AfDler even spoke of a “peace week”.
In comparison, the well-known song “A Bit Peace” by singer Nicole is almost modest. The AfD was accordingly sharply criticized in the Bundestag on Thursday: From the point of view of the other parties, it is a transparent domestic political maneuver combined with the dissemination of Russian propaganda.
But not everyone in the AfD agrees with the course. The question of how to position oneself on Russia continues to simmer beneath the surface. The AfD motion for a “peace initiative with security guarantees for Ukraine and Russia” debated in the Bundestag on Thursday is an example of this: the text of the motion, led by honorary chairman Alexander Gauland, was debated for weeks. For many, the paper was too pro-Russian.
The contradictions in the AfD are great
Originally it said, for example, that Crimea should be recognized as part of Russia. That was deleted again. An earlier version only spoke of “a war” in the eastern neighborhood, which was finally changed to “aggressive war contrary to international law” under pressure from more Western-minded party members.
A uniform Russia line is difficult for the AfD to find because different positions clearly oppose each other:
For some, like the Thuringian party right winger Björn Höcke, the position is clear: In his opinion, Putin reacted “hard and consistently to the offensive of a space alien power”, by which he means the USA. He calls Russia a “natural partner” of Germany and warns of a Western “rainbow empire.” Höcke has been using the peace dove, which is now emblazoned on Chrupalla’s Facebook page, since last spring, as has the former slogan of the peace movement “Create peace without weapons.” the past week. In the propaganda broadcast by Vladimir Solovyov, who repeatedly insulted the German government and sometimes ranted about attacks on Germany, Kotré stated that the majority of Germans were against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. Another example: The deputy AfD head of Saxony-Anhalt, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider. According to his own statement, he waved a Russian flag at the large AfD demonstration in Berlin on October 8, as a “sign of self-assertion and as a clear message to the transatlanticists”. There are such “transatlanticists” in the AfD too. They come mainly from the west: some former CDU voters for whom the CDU has become too left-wing and who would still like to bring the AfD onto a “moderate” line that is compatible. They perceive such actions as pandering to Russia and harmful in wooing conservative voters. Others, on the other hand, take a traditionally right-wing line and shake their heads when party leader Chrupalla, like last week, lays a wreath alongside Russian Ambassador Sergei Nechayev at a Memorial to fallen Soviet soldiers can be photographed. Previously, he had laid a wreath alone at a memorial for German soldiers. East or West usually plays a role in the AfD when it comes to Russia. The Leipzig AfD member of the Bundestag Matthias Moosdorf loudly accused representatives of the USA and Eastern Europe of warmongering in the Bundestag on Thursday. The evening before he had invited the parliamentary group to the said “peace concert” and played the cello. The motto of the concert: “Freedom to peace!”. So-called solidarity concerts in the GDR during the Cold War were broadcast on the radio under exactly this title. “If you call a concert that today, it shows an attitude that definitely doesn’t stand for one thing: freedom,” wrote Joana Cotar on Twitter on Thursday. The MP, who grew up in West Germany, left the AfD in November.
At the “peace concert” on Wednesday evening, Chrupalla spoke of a signal “that diplomats are finally being sent instead of grenades”. SPD MP Derya Türk-Nachbaur made a proposal to the AfD on Thursday in the Bundestag: “You want to negotiate? Well, then please use your good contacts in the Kremlin and tell them that the aggressor will withdraw his troops as soon as possible. If Putin’s weapons be silent, the war will end.”