AFD elected Tino Chrupalla as the new leader on Saturday. The election was preceded by a deep internal division, where the former leader Jörg Meuthen left his post in protest against the party’s increasingly extreme politics and right-wing turn.
MEP Meuthen said in connection with the departure that the party risks “total isolation” and that it is moving towards the extreme edge of politics “with its current direction of travel”. Meuthen, who was the party’s third leader since it was founded in 2013, has seen AFD both make successful parliamentary elections and shrink to its current size of about ten percent in the Bundestag.
The defector Meuthen also expressed sharp criticism of the AFD’s attitude towards Moscow, where the party questioned international sanctions, as well as the party’s questioning of Germany’s policy during the corona pandemic.
Chrupalla will lead the party together with AFD’s group leader in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel. In the background is the party member Björn Höcke from the federal state of Thuringia, who has been sharply criticized by other parties. Höcke is considered to represent a group that stands even further on the extreme right wing, and his activities are examined by German authorities following a court decision.