The AfD tries to explain its defeat in Schleswig-Holstein with regional causes, but is still fundamentally disturbed by it.

Federal spokesman Tino Chrupalla said, with a view to the weak election result of 4.4 percent after the defeat, that Schleswig-Holstein was one of the “more difficult federal states” for his party.

He gave the reason: "People are relatively happy here".

This leads to the conclusion that the party leader apparently only sees the chance for the AfD to mobilize its voters as a protest party.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

In addition to the regional circumstances, AfD politicians also cited the dominant political issues as the reason why the party left the state parliament after five years in the Kiel state parliament.

"It was difficult to mobilize voters," Chrupalla said.

The Kiel AfD top candidate Jörg Nobis gave the reason that “times of crisis” are “times of government”.

This had an impact under the impact of the corona pandemic and the war in Ukraine;

the winner of the election, Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU), "benefited massively".

Internal dispute "not appreciated"

In subordinate clauses, the comments of leading AfD politicians also contain references to the ongoing internal disputes that they blame for the defeat.

Nobis said there had been internal disputes that were "not appreciated" by voters.

Among other things, Nobis was alluding to the dispute over the former state chairman Doris von Sayn-Wittgenstein, who had been excluded from the party and parliamentary group after long quarrels.

After another AfD MP left the state parliamentary group, their group status expired.

Kiel's top candidate Nobis belongs to the moderate right-wing conservative camp within the AfD.

The federal spokesman Tino Chrupalla, who comes from Saxony, urged his party to unite.

"I think there needs to be more discipline in the next few years," he said on television.

The AfD must now build on its "conservative and national basic values".

Despite such appeals, the party looks forward to a troubled year.

Chrupalla has to stand for re-election at a federal party conference in June.

The position of the second federal spokesman, which was held by Jörg Meuthen until recently, is open.

At the federal party conference, a directional dispute between conservatives and right-wing extremists could be fought over personal details.

The AfD can hope that it will be spared another major defeat in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia next Sunday, after all, five years ago it achieved 7.4 percent of the votes there (in Schleswig-Holstein it was only 5 percent five years ago). .9 percent), and current surveys give her between six and eight percent there.

However, the prospects for the state elections in Lower Saxony in autumn this year are less stable.

There, the AfD got 6.2 percent of the votes five years ago.

A press conference by the AfD in Berlin did not take place on Monday.

As the party announced, the federal press conference canceled it after AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla was not allowed to enter the building due to the applicable 2G regulation and the top candidate from Schleswig-Holstein did not appear in time. 

An earlier version said that the AfD had missed the opportunity to comment.

The AfD announced by email on Monday afternoon that the federal press conference had canceled the press conference.

The information has been updated.