Jean‑Pascal Hohm, the head of the AfD youth organisation Generation Deutschland, says that AfD politicians should keep appearing alongside the controversial activist Martin Sellner. “It is important that we continue to sit on stages and run debates – even if invited by third parties” he told the Thursday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung. “A contact ban would be wrong, hard to sustain, and unlikely to be enforced”.
On Monday the party’s national board adopted a resolution urging all associations and members to avoid “party events” with Sellner. The resolution cited two position papers that spell out the party’s stance on the terms “remigration” and on the German nation. The board’s intent was to draw a clear line, but it stuck to the wording in the resolution so as not to further alienate Sellner supporters.
Consequently, the resolution leaves the door open for AfD factions to hold events with Sellner or to stage public debates with him at his invitation. Hohm told the FAZ that while he does not plan such events, the party and Generation Deutschland have no such plans. “Events like those of Ms. Kotré and Mr. Sellner are neither planned by me as a member of the Landtag nor by Generation Deutschland” he said. Hohm is also a state‑parliament member in Brandenburg; his colleague Lena Kotré attended a meeting with Sellner in January after his invitation.
Hohm did not justify his choice not to invite Sellner on the basis of the man’s positions. Instead, he cited a division of labour between the party core and its activist front. “With project hygiene we can reach more patriots. The party and the front play different roles in the patriotic mosaic that they must fulfil” he explained. This view is common within the party and its activist wing: activists can push the limits of what can be said more radically than party officials, thereby paving the way for the party’s later actions.