At its federal congress in Magdeburg, the young AfD organization Junge Alternative (JA) partially excluded the press. Journalists had to leave the room for a debate on the suspected case decision of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The discussion is about sensitive data, said one of the approximately 120 JA members present. For a second time, the press was banned from discussing the finances of the Federal Executive.

Now all had to go out for the TOP constitutional protection. Film with "Press excluded" was already activated before the request for our exclusion was made. Strange understanding of press freedom, @JA_Germany #AfD pic.twitter.com/fB55EbujjW

- Ann-Katrin Müller (@ akm0803) 16 February 2019

At the center of the meeting of around 150 JA members was a new statute and the new election of the board. JA Bundeschef Damian Lohr was confirmed in office. The 25-year-old member of parliament from Rhineland-Palatinate received 111 out of 137 valid votes. Lohr said that JA wants to "save and protect" the German state. "That makes us the guardians of the Constitution."

DPA

Damian Lohr

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had announced in January to look more closely at the AfD youth organization as well as the right-wing national wing of the AfD. It declared both groups suspected. This is always the case when, in the opinion of the constitutional protectors, "sufficiently important clues" exist for "that it is an extremist effort". Several leading members had left the JA after the announcement of the decision of the constitution protection.

The JA members voted in Magdeburg also for a new statute, which abolishes, inter alia, the arbitration courts. The AFD member of parliament Roland Hartwig said that the new constitution was an important reaction to the decision of the constitution protection. "The protection of the constitution has us in the sights and our task is to persist." He was sure that the JA would permanently remain the youth organization of the AfD. Hartwig leads the AfD Working Group on the Protection of the Constitution.

At the beginning of the Federal Congress, the AFD Bundestag member and country chief in Saxony-Anhalt, Martin Reichardt, before the JA. He also called her to moderation. Youth organizations are always more rebellious and provocative than the mother party, said Reichardt.

It would be good if the boys occasionally drove the elderly in the party. "But be smart and not stick to those who are more interested in the booming phrase than in programmatic political thinking and political work," Reichardt said. JA wanted to elect a new board at the federal congress and discuss a change of the statutes.