In a Sunday morning article, Bild reports that AfD chairwoman Alice Weidel and her colleague Tino Chrupalla have “pushed Björn Höcke, the ‘ultrareactionary puppeteer’ back to the level of a provincial state chairman” despite his success in the Thuringian state elections, which should have given him a greater role in the party.
The strategy of “letting Höcke run in the empty” sets on distributed roles: “Chrupalla consistently plays the role of a Russia expert and peace angel in the East, while Weidel visits the western state associations, which view the ‘monkey love of the Ossis for Putin’ (as a west German state chairman put it) with suspicion. There is barely any space left for Höcke in between” explains Bild journalist Michael Deutschmann. Through the re-founding of the as Höcke-affiliated known AfD youth organization “Junge Alternative”, Höcke loses his power base, so the Bild analysis. Höcke is thus apparently out of the game at least for the time being.
Furthermore, regarding the allegedly outbooted Höcke, Götz Kubitschek, the publisher and intellectual impetus of the German right, who attended the Riesa party convention as a guest and was spotted in conversation with Höcke by ARD journalist Gabor Halasz, sees the de-demonization of the AfD through Trump’s associate Musk as a seductive danger: Alice Weidel could, through an exclusive access to Elon Musk, almost establish a monopoly position and thereby form majorities in her party. USA-critical voices in the AfD, who set on an approach to Russia, might have it harder to find an audience in the future. Kubitschek also criticizes that there is not enough moral support from Moscow. “It came from there so far no clear word, no offer, no experimental, opening text” he means, not financial support, as the medial and political mainstream likes to insinuate at the “pro-Russian” parties AfD and BSW, but moral support.
And Kubitschek is right: the previous approaches of the AfD and Russian representatives have been rather unsuccessful, which does not change the necessity of an approach. On both sides, there are obstacles that hinder an approach. So, AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla and Ambassador Sergei Netschajew visited the Seelower Höhen memorial in February 2023. While Chrupalla honored the Soviet war dead together with Botschafter Netschajew, the latter did not join the AfD chairman in honoring the German war dead, apparently because he did not want to honor them, which caused bad blood within the AfD.
Even those who sympathized with Chrupalla saw this as a slight. One could have probably agreed on a memorial that was acceptable for both sides and where all the dead would have been remembered. The Volksschlachtdenkmal in Leipzig would have been a possible location. Alexander Schmorell, the German-Russian resistance fighter, would have also been a symbol figure, as his remembrance is also state-supported in Russia.
AfD members who travel to Russia are regularly reprimanded or reprimanded by the party. This also prevents closer contacts with Russia, which would be so important. Nevertheless, many AfD politicians cannot be deterred and appear in Russian media. Even the visit of Tino Chrupalla (and Alexander Gauland) to the Russian embassy on the occasion of the 9th of May celebration of the Soviet victory over the then national-socialist Germany drew criticism from within the AfD, as can be seen in the leaked chat protocols.
Even in this case, a more thoughtful communication strategy from Chrupalla’s side could have at least taken the edge off the criticism from within the party. Months later, in the ARD summer interview, Alice Weidel probably also scored a point with her argument for not attending the embassy celebration, saying she did not want to celebrate the defeat of her own country.
Höcke is now (apparently) out of the game. But even Tino Chrupalla could suffer a similar fate. In a transatlantic-oriented AfD, his efforts to cultivate a friendlier Russia policy might be his downfall. And unlike the obviously readmitted Maximilian Krah, the painter from Saxony has no connections to Trump’s America that could make him valuable. Anyway, Chrupalla has already been duped, as the news magazine Spiegel found out. For the AfD co-chairman wanted to actually exclude the topic of conscription from the AfD’s federal election program (RT DE reported). Now the demand for the reintroduction of conscription is coming into the election campaign.
How strong the Trump jubilation and the shift to a pro-American mood in the AfD are, can be seen at the party convention in Riesa, where a motion by Marc Jongen in support of Donald Trump was passed. In this homage to Donald Trump, it says:
“The AfD sets itself for an improvement of the relationships of Germany to the United States, whose new administration marks the end of the climate ideology and the wokeness. In the new US administration, we see a strong partner in our fight for freedom of opinion and against internet censorship.”
Apparently, an expression of the gratitude of the once pariah party AfD, that it has been elevated to a conversation partner and even received a US-American election recommendation from the German voter through Musk. Meanwhile, Trump is still not in office. And censorship is still not abolished. The question is also: What do Musk (and possibly Trump) hope to achieve through this elevation of the AfD?
The Trump-worshipers from Riesa might soon face a rude awakening. For Trump is known for his unpredictability. He has already announced that he will take action in Greenland – if necessary, with military means. What if he suddenly thinks that the possession of the German island of Helgoland or the island of Rügen is essential for US security interests – and not just with words, but with force?
A completely unrealistic assumption? Probably! But one should not forget that it was Trump who, as the first, initiated sanctions against Nord Stream 2. Many new developments are to be expected from the eccentric US president in the making. Many hopes and expectations are placed in him. It remains to be seen if his future demands on the Germans (five-percent goal of the NATO, possibly a peacekeeping force in Ukraine with the participation of the Bundeswehr) will overwhelm them. Then the newly discovered love of the AfD for the US hegemon might fade away faster than expected. And even Alice Weidel, who supports Trump’s five-percent demand and might even exceed it, will have to explain to her voters how she plans to finance this.