Tino Chrupalla does not deny taking part in secret meetings

Hat the AfD federal chairman Tino Chrupalla took part in a secret meeting of right-wing extremists and entrepreneurs close to them in October 2021? When asked by the FAZ, Chrupalla neither wanted to confirm nor deny this. He doesn't have to justify private meetings. “Ask the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, they’re watching me,” he said. Several media outlets previously reported that Chrupalla said in response to inquiries that he could not remember. The AfD politician said that these were not current quotes, but older ones.

The matter is about a meeting that is said to have taken place on October 9, 2021, shortly after the federal election. The meeting that appears to be “5. “Düsseldorfer Runde” became known through internal documents that were published on the Internet by the hacker collective Anonymous. Afterwards, the former Düsseldorf dentist Gernot Mörig invited people to the discussions, in which “around 25” people were said to have taken part, “including extremely powerful people in financial matters,” as it was said in an email.

In a draft letter of thanks, which is said to have come from Mörig, the “positive response” and the “almost familial character” of the meeting are praised. It goes on to say: “And that – immediately after a strenuous federal election campaign – the federal spokesman for the AFD, Tino Chrupalla, gets into the car himself to answer questions in a completely uncomplicated and credible manner in front of a small private circle in order to be able to answer questions the next morning Driving back to Berlin via Görlitz very early in the morning was certainly not a given!”

Demonstrations against right-wing extremism

In this way, the well-known goals of “simply feeling comfortable in the company of sophisticated patriots, expanding our network in many dimensions and finally supporting good projects” were achieved. He is looking forward to the next Düsseldorf round on October 15, 2022 in Potsdam.

Mörig has been active in the ethnic-new-right scene for a long time; In the 1970s he was the federal leader of the Homeland Loyalty Youth Association (BHJ), which later became the Homeland Loyalty German Youth (HDJ). The right-wing extremist organization was banned in 2009.

Mörig also invited people to the secret conference in Potsdam in November 2023, which the Correctiv research network recently reported on. It is also said to have been referred to internally as the “Düsseldorf Forum”. Roland Hartwig, the personal advisor to the AfD federal chairwoman Alice Weidel, other AfD members as well as members of the CDU and the “Union of Values” took part. According to Correctiv, Martin Sellner from the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” presented a “master plan” according to which several million people with a migrant background should be expelled from Germany.

The report led to large demonstrations against right-wing extremism at the weekend, for example in Berlin and Potsdam, and fueled debate about how to deal with the AfD. The party is ahead in surveys in the states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, where elections will take place in September.

Petition against Höcke

In addition to the possibility of banning a party, the deprivation of basic rights for AfD politicians is also being considered. A petition on the Campact platform calls for the Thuringian AfD chairman Höcke to be deprived of his basic rights. “Stop the fascist Björn Höcke: Have the federal government submit an application to the Federal Constitutional Court for the forfeiture of fundamental rights in accordance with Article 18 of the Basic Law,” says the petition, which was sent to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the parliamentary group leaders of the SPD, the CDU/ CSU, the Greens, the FDP and the Left Party.

Höcke should lose the right to vote and stand as a candidate and no longer hold public office. This had to happen so that he could “no longer cause any further damage to liberal democracy”. The petition had received more than 825,000 signatures by early Monday afternoon.

There is also ongoing debate about whether a ban should be brought against the AfD. The social democratic heads of government of Hamburg and Saarland, Peter Tschentscher and Anke Rehlinger, were skeptical. A ban procedure should only be started if it has a chance of success before the Federal Constitutional Court, the politicians told the newspaper “Die Welt”.

In the SPD leadership, party leader Saskia Esken was open to a ban. In the CDU, Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Daniel Günther represents this position, while party leader Friedrich Merz rejects it. He demands that the AfD be given a political stance. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai also took this stance on Monday.

Another way to reduce support for the AfD is to act more decisively in migration policy. The CDU state leaders Hendrik Wüst from North Rhine-Westphalia and Kai Wegner from Berlin called for another migration summit between the states with the Federal Chancellor. The first voices are also being heard in the SPD that are urging tougher action. The SPD member of the Bundestag Axel Schäfer told the “Tagesspiegel” that the SPD “must become bolder in limiting migration and accept the conflict with the Greens.” He added: “I am absolutely sure: Olaf Scholz can do it.”