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WELT AM SONNTAG:

In Hamburg, but also in Rhineland-Palatinate, the AfD parliamentary groups are shrinking after members of the more moderate wing have left the party.

Are these the external signs of an internal division?

Stefan Aust:

Over the years, the AfD has remained a collective movement and protest party, with new members joining for very different reasons.

The successes in the elections made the party interesting for those whose slogans and attitudes would never have found their way into parliaments anywhere else.

This "alternative" has become a cover for many who belong to a radical right-wing spectrum.

And that promotes the breakup of the party.

WELT AM SONNTAG:

After the euro, refugees, climate and now Corona, the AfD always focuses on fear and victim issues.

Can that be a permanent basis for a party?

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Aust:

You have to see the AfD as a result of a traditional party landscape that could no longer cover a sufficiently large spectrum and that had narrowed thematically.

The problem is that the AfD prevents a sensible argument about the issues that made them great by their appearance and behavior.

These issues are virtually infected by the AfD, a factual discussion is then only possible with great difficulty because at some point in every debate it is said that this is now AfD policy.

It was the same with Donald Trump.

WELT AM SONNTAG:

Could the CDU with a candidate for Chancellor Friedrich Merz succeed in keeping the AfD out of the Bundestag?

Aust:

It shouldn't be anyone's stated goal to oust the AfD, because then you let this party dictate the agenda again.

Each candidate should clearly represent his own position - and then not be afraid of approval.

Even if that can be uncomfortable - but when Mr. Gauland says it is raining, the sun is far from shining.

We can't let the AfD dictate what we can and can't say.

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Stefan Aust is editor of WELT AM SONNTAG.

Jörn Lauterbach asked the questions.

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

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Source: Welt am Sonntag