"Action day" against compulsory vaccination: Why the AfD not from the Corona

The best-known heads of the AfD are swarming across the country this Saturday.

Party leader Tino Chrupalla comes to Dresden, his deputy Beatrix von Storch to Neumünster, the Thuringian state chairman Björn Höcke to Magdeburg.

The AfD has registered nine rallies in nine cities, and the federal association dug deep into the party coffers for the “day of action” against a possible corona vaccination.

Each event is subsidized with up to 15,000 euros, plus expenses for flyers and posters.

According to the press office, this makes a total of more than 300,000 euros.

Andreas Nefger

Editor in Politics.

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Because of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the AfD will probably not get the attention it had imagined for its day of protest.

But she has a new answer to the question of whether this is necessary: ​​major events in pandemic times.

Beatrix von Storch says of the hundreds of thousands who "correctly" demonstrated against the war in Berlin: "Nobody thinks – rightly so – of wanting to ban the peace demonstration.

But a day later, just as legitimate, peaceful protests against corona measures by a few hundred are said to be dangerous.

That's absurd."

However, it remains unclear why the AfD is making the effort at all.

So far, she has not been able to benefit from her fundamental opposition to the federal government's corona policy.

Regardless of the incidence value, the party has been somewhere between nine and eleven percent since the pandemic began.

It's all about "freedom"

There is little to suggest that this will change anytime soon.

The party is going into the protest at the weekend with well-known positions: no compulsory vaccination and the immediate end of all corona restrictions.

There is a lot about “freedom” on the flyers that demonstrators can buy in the fan shop and in the current speeches by AfD politicians.

It sounds a bit like FDP.

And in fact, one sometimes hears the assessment in the party that a few percentage points could be gained on the field that the Liberals have cleared since they had to make compromises in the traffic light coalition.

In the same way, however, the assessment can be heard in the AfD that one is standing in one's own way.

Because the AfD did not suddenly become a new FDP.

You can tell by the tongue-twisting: Up to the top of the party, it is considered appropriate to speak of a “corona dictatorship”.

In addition, even influential AfD people represent "lateral thinkers" positions.

So it's no wonder that the issue can't be mobilized beyond the regular voters, more moderate officials complain privately.

One of the speeches, which even irritated party members, was given by Christina Baum in December.

It was the first speech by the dentist from Baden-Württemberg in the Bundestag, topic: partial vaccination.

Baum spoke of "terror" and "slavery of the people", calling the project a "rape of parts of the people".

And she appealed to the Standing Vaccination Commission to withdraw approval for the vaccines because the benefits have not been proven and the risk is fatal.

Sure: Baum has little influence in the AfD.

But that cannot be said of all “lateral thinkers” in the party.

Peter Boehringer, for example.

The member of the Bundestag from Bavaria is considered the preferred candidate of honorary chairman Alexander Gauland to succeed Jörg Meuthen at the party leadership.

In an interview last year, he spoke of “statistical fraud” in connection with the pandemic, which is an “international phenomenon”.

As the reason for the alleged machinations, Boehringer cited the large amount of money that governments around the world could create with reference to the pandemic.

Thousands were "sprayed to death," claims Höcke

The Thuringian state boss Höcke also belongs in the series.

At the beginning of February, he said in the state parliament in Erfurt that "thousands of people who were sprayed dead with mRNA vaccines must now be assumed".

On another occasion, Höcke claimed that it could not be ruled out that corona vaccinations produced next-generation infertility.

Despite such positions, the party leadership speaks of a great deal of unity in corona policy: "We are in complete agreement in the party that the state must not force anyone to be vaccinated and that all measures must be ended immediately," says Beatrix von Stork.

"There are different personal opinions on the question of whether vaccination is advisable, but we are united again: vaccination is therefore a private matter."

The AfD finds it difficult to clearly differentiate itself from radicals, not only within the party, but also on the street.

Again and again, the AfD calls for the same actions as right-wing extremists on social networks, and they regularly march in the same demonstrations.

Party leader Chrupalla says that unfortunately cannot be prevented: "Everyone has the right to take part in a demonstration." And: "Unfortunately, peaceful protest is also abused by problematic types."

Just a few weeks ago, the federal executive board wanted to ram in a stake and unanimously put the "Free Saxony" on the incompatibility list.

A cooperation between the AfD and the right-wing extremist small party, which has recently distinguished itself primarily through the organization of corona protests, is now ruled out.

But criticism of the initiative promptly came.

From East German state associations it was said that the decision could hardly be conveyed to the demonstrators on the street.

Deputy Baum also spoke up.

In an interview with the magazine "Compact", she called the incompatibility decision "unspeakable".

The fact that AfD members are no longer allowed to protest together with "Freien Sachsen" is "paternalism", which she will not adhere to in case of doubt.

She attested to the group observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution “a good job”.