How badly Jörg Meuthen knows his own party base shows the result of the member survey in the AfD about their top candidates for the federal election.
In football, such a clear victory by Meuthen opponents Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla over their dream duo Joana Cotar and Joachim Wundrak would be described as gossip.
The AfD boss had specifically prevented a decision at the Dresden party congress and relied on a vote of the grassroots, which he assessed in the West German state associations with a large number of members as mostly moderate and even bourgeois for AfD conditions.
The fact that the largest opposition faction in the Bundestag is now running with Weidel and Chruppalla is much more than just a serious personal defeat for Meuthen.
The decision in favor of this politician duo supports the right-wing radical course already decided by the AfD delegates in the election program in a consistent manner in terms of personnel.
Both have signed an (attack) pact against the Meuthen camp with the only officially dissolved right-wing extremist "wing" Björn Höckes. Weidel and Chrupalla can also credibly and aggressively represent the program items implemented by the Höcke troops, such as the exit from the EU or the commitment to “German values” demanded by the Bundeswehr. Meuthen's fairy tale about the moderation of the AfD dissolves in election air.