AfD: The personnel debate is becoming a fundamental debate

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Content dispute is not to be expected.

If the AfD decides on the Bundestag election program next weekend in Dresden, differences over factual issues or thematic determinations will in all probability hardly play a role.

Nobody in the AfD expects major controversies before the party congress about the summary of the previous AfD demands in the main motion for the election program.

The arguments about people are likely to be all the more intense.

Namely about those who are supposed to represent the electoral program as the top candidates.

Ultimately, this is about the question of an exchange of leadership - and thus about the balance between the supporters of the officially disbanded wing, classified as guaranteed right-wing extremist by the constitution protection, and the verbally less radical camp around party leader Jörg Meuthen.

The personnel debate becomes the basic debate of the AfD.

An exchange of leadership is due because the previous Bundestag parliamentary group chairman, Alexander Gauland, is 80 years old.

Although he is drawn to parliament again, the Brandenburg AfD has chosen Gauland at number one on the list.

But it can almost be ruled out that the increasingly grumpy honorary chairman wants to become a top candidate again and then parliamentary group leader.

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Gauland's role as a representative of the East German state associations with close ties to the wing network is likely to fall to co-party leader Tino Chrupalla.

Although he has never officially commented on his ambitions, he is also considered to be set because of his first place on the Saxon state list and is internally ready for the top candidacy.

But who should stand next to Chrupalla in the alleged election duo and represent the West?

Weidel: Serious defeat in state elections and donation affair

Just a few months ago, the other parliamentary group leader, Alice Weidel, was said to have the best chances.

But it is now unclear whether the 42-year-old wants to be the top candidate and would be elected.

Her donation affair is hanging on her, as is the severe setback in the state elections in Baden-Württemberg, where Weidel is state chairman and has numerous opponents in various camps.

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She recently showed herself frustrated in a WELT interview that the AfD “could not position itself as a problem-solving party” in the corona pandemic - for which she, as the parliamentary group leader, is jointly responsible.

In no way hostile to the wing network, Weidel got involved in a guerrilla war with Meuthen without being able to weaken the party leader who was not aspiring to join the Bundestag.

And now another woman from the west has also moved towards the top candidate.

The Hessian member of the Bundestag Joana Cotar, 47, only elected to the AfD federal board in November, was recently brought into play by her two board colleagues Alexander Wolf (Hamburg) and Carsten Hütter (Saxony) as part of a dual election campaign.

"That would be a top team: Joana Cotar and Tino Chrupalla," wrote Hütter on Facebook.

But immediately - and this shows the symbolic power of this person in the internal party dispute over the direction - from wing circles against Cotar teased.

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The specific reason was that Cotar told the “Junge Freiheit” that she had “actually been asked” for a candidacy, was “basically ready”, but did not want to say more because such a process “should be integrative”.

Shortly afterwards, party vice Stephan Brandner WELT said rather unintegrally: "I would have found Joana Cotar's efforts to be much more serious if the topic had been discussed at the latest federal board meeting." However, the question was "not mentioned at all" .

In addition, according to Brandner, he was also asked, "and as far as I know, many have been asked."

Later, the member of the Bundestag Jürgen Pohl tweeted an obviously ironic photo montage of himself and Cotar with the inscription "I was asked too!"

Brandner and Pohl are far to the right in the party.

In contrast, the economically liberal to libertarian Cotar clearly belongs to the Meuthen camp and is not connected to the wing network.

If she were to become a top candidate, that would be a signal against the Volkish.

However, one of the complications with the fiercely contested top AfD candidate is the question of whether the leadership figures should be elected in Dresden at all.

The reason for this is a maneuver initiated a long time ago by Meuthen's majority in the federal board.

When it still looked like Weidel would have a good chance at a party congress, the party leader and his supporters decided to ask all AfD members whether they would rather determine the top candidates themselves in a later primary election.

Seven state associations against primary election

It is true that participation in this survey was very low with not even 25 percent of the members.

But the result was clear: 87 percent of the participants voted for a primary election.

But seven state associations, including all those close to the wing in East Germany, have now submitted a total of three applications for the party congress, according to which the top candidates should be elected in Dresden.

Officially, the applicants argue, among other things, that in view of the beginning of the Bundestag election campaign, the party should not wait any longer to name leaders and will therefore have to commit to the next weekend.

Meanwhile, those state boards who would basically agree with Weidel originally had a hidden motive in the applications they submitted weeks ago: By bringing forward the candidate selection, the Meuthen camp was to prevent the Meuthen camp from having more time to build up its own candidates for a later primary election .

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But now, since Weidel is clearly hesitating and the wing opponent Cotar is already ready, an election at the party congress could also turn out to the detriment of the right wing.

Especially since these, if Weidel should actually fail, have no strong personnel alternative from the West to offer.

However, in the area around Meuthen, a later basic primary election is still favored - also by someone who also reveals ambitions.

The Bundestag member Rüdiger Lucassen, head of the state in North Rhine-Westphalia, answered the WELT question whether he would apply for a top candidate or a place in a top team: "Basically yes, but not at the federal party conference."

As a reason, Lucassen cited on the one hand the "clear result" of the member survey, which one should "not just ignore".

On the other hand, “the election of one or more top candidates at the federal party congress is too early”.

Lucassen points out that ten AfD regional associations, including the three largest members in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg as well as North Rhine-Westphalia, have not yet voted on their respective lists of candidates for the federal election.

In the case of a top candidate election at the federal party congress, it would theoretically be conceivable that someone chosen there would not be listed in the regional association afterwards - or that he or she would only get a place on the list because of the top candidate.

"Seriously", so Lucassen, the determination of the top candidates for the federal government can only take place after the party congresses of the state associations.

"My state association in North Rhine-Westphalia will only decide on the list of candidates for the federal election after the federal party conference," said Lucassen.

“If I were to run as the top candidate of the federal party at the federal party conference, that would be an unfair distortion of competition.

The NRW delegates should choose the best candidate and not be forced to confirm an election at the federal party congress. "

This is how the AfD reacts to the losses in the state elections

The AfD suffered significant setbacks in the state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg.

Party leader Jörg Meuthen explains what effects this has on federal politics.

Source: WORLD

Lucassen said of Cotar that he valued her "very much" as "a very professional politician".

Nevertheless, he was "against the choice of a top team at the upcoming federal party congress for the reasons mentioned", and these reasons are "independent of the person of all possible applicants".

However, quite a few in the AfD across the camps object that the list election party congresses of the state associations could drag on into May and possibly even June because of the corona restrictions.

But if you only hold a lengthy basic primary election on the top candidates afterwards, you can do without it right away so shortly before the federal election.

How the dispute will end is completely open.

It can only be considered reasonably certain that this procedural issue in Dresden will lead to one of those agenda battles that have paralyzed many AfD party congresses for hours.

Many would quickly find someone to blame for such a mess: Meuthen.

Because he had campaigned for the member survey that now makes everything so complicated.

If this makes the preparations for the election campaign much more difficult and the party then weakens in the election, things should be tight for the party leader himself.

In any case, Meuthen is very controversial because of his confrontational course towards the wing network, and he too has his own donation affair.

If a new federal executive has to be elected at the next but one federal party congress at the end of the year, the topic of leadership exchange can also affect Meuthen.