Photo: @Alice_Weidel on X, 29 June 2024
Coordinated efforts by the far left and municipal officials failed to disrupt the annual congress of the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the German city of Essen over the weekend. The congress followed months of infighting, but also big successes for the party in last month’s European elections. The party also reported that membership had surged by 60% since January 2023.
According to protest organisers, 70,000 people took to the streets of Essen in a total of 32 demonstrations during the three-day congress. There were violent clashes between demonstrators and the police on Saturday morning, about which German media and politicians were largely silent.
In the congress hall itself, the party comfortably re-elected Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla as co-leaders, although attempts to centralise power within the party’s national committee and move towards having a general secretary were postponed.
On foreign policy, the party did not, in the end, debate motions restricting the ability of party representatives to travel abroad and speak to foreign media.
Alice Weidel received the largest applause of the weekend for declaring “Ukraine does not belong to the EU and not to Europe” as she voiced objections to fresh sanctions against Russian gas.
Weidel also defended her handling of the expulsion of the lead MEP candidate Maximilian Krah after his remarks appearing to relativise the guilt of SS soldiers and stated that her party had “grown up” and was ready to take the front stage in national and European politics.
The next task facing the party following the weekend congress is determining their alliances on the Right given the creation of a new faction for the European Parliament alongside newer nationalist parties, primarily from Eastern Europe.