The president of the populist Alternative for Germany leaves the party

The president of the ultranationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD), Jörg Meuthen, has unexpectedly announced his resignation from office and his immediate departure from the party, after being overwhelmed by the most extreme right wing of his ranks. Speaking to the public television station ARD, Meuthen acknowledged today that he was fed up with internal criticism and felt defeated by the formally dissolved “El Ala”, the most radical sector of the eurosceptic and xenophobic formation. “The heart of the party beats very far to the right today,” said the representative of the most moderate among the members of the AfD, who recognized that a good part of the militants of what until now was their formation “are not based on the order basic liberal democratic. I observe clearly totalitarian reminiscences».

Meuthen admitted his failure to lead his party down the path of moderation, commenting that in the coronavirus crisis, the AfD has become little more than a sect by rejecting the anti-pandemic policy followed by the rest of the parties, defend conspiracy theories and encourage protests against the measures adopted to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The German politician pointed out that, however, he has no intention of abandoning politics or his seat as an MEP in Strasbourg, although he will cease to belong to the populist group “Identity and Democracy” in which his party is active in the European chamber. Meuthen is under pressure over the possibility of losing his parliamentary immunity after being embroiled in a scandal involving illegal donations to Alternative for Germany.

However, he denied that there is a direct link between that scandal and his decision to resign from the AfD presidency and leave that party. The latter was decided a long time ago and has been the result of a long process of reflection, assured the German politician. Meuthen had already announced last autumn that he would not stand for re-election as Alternative for Germany chairman, which was then seen by political observers as a defeat in the fight against his rivals in the party, including the two parliamentary leaders in the Bundestag, Tino Chrupalla and Alce Waidel. But also as a failure in the struggle for power with the representatives of “El Ala”. “Der Flügel”, literally “The Wing”, is an influential group within the AfD around the ultranationalist ideologue Björn Höcke, which officially dissolved itself in 2020 when the internal intelligence services of Germany announced that they would be permanently observed for their tendencies. far-rightists and their opposition to the rule of law.

However, its members continue to be politically active and practically dominate the formation. The former president of the AfD anticipated in the autumn that co-religionists such as Chrupalla, Weidel or Höcke “will be really happy that Meuthen leaves once and for all”, and stressed that especially the third party, leader of the AfD in the federal state of Thuringia, has shown repeatedly “National Socialist tendencies”. Meuthen is not the first AfD president to throw in the towel harassed by far-rightists from his own formation. Economics professor Bernd Lucke, founder in 2013 of the party that was initially solely critical of Brussels politics, resigned from the presidency in 2015 when he realized that the far right had devoured his creation. Two years later, her successor Frauke Petry was forced to do the same for the same reasons.

Since 2019, the German internal intelligence services, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), have been studying whether Alternative for Germany is a party that pursues unconstitutional goals, for which it could be banned. The regional groupings of the formation are currently observed permanently by the intelligence services in eight of the sixteen federal states. In January of that year, the BfV classified “El Ala” and the youth of the party as cases suspected of pursuing extremist objectives. Next March, the Cologne Administrative Court will have to decide on several complaints filed by Alternative for Germany against the intelligence services. The controversial formation aspires to achieve by judicial means that it cannot be monitored by those responsible for the BfV.