Compulsory military service: AfD faction leadership around Weidel initiates withdrawal

The AfD does not want to submit its own motion on compulsory military service to the Bundestag. This is according to consistent information from the star the board of the AfD parliamentary group will propose to the MPs this Tuesday. The management committee made the corresponding decision on Monday afternoon.

The East German regional associations around the Thuringian regional leader Björn Höcke have thus prevailed. Party and parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel is also said to be, according to information from star have advocated for the waiver. When asked, their spokesman only confirmed that the board recommended that the AfD not submit its own application to the coalition’s conscription proposal. Ultimately, the entire parliamentary group will decide on Tuesday.

The AfD has been arguing for months about reintroducing compulsory military service. The demand is in the party’s basic program. Nevertheless, things escalated after the parliamentary group’s defense policy spokesman, Rüdiger Lucassen, incorporated the official position into an opposition motion for the Bundestag in the summer. “Secure Germany’s defense capability – reactivate compulsory military service” was the headline.

After the majority of the other working group leaders approved the paper, it was shelved because the camp around Höcke blocked it. First there was a statement from the East German state parliamentary group leaders under the title: “No conscription for foreign wars.” Later, Höcke’s co-state leader Stefan Möller, who has been a member of the Bundestag since this year, intervened on behalf of two dozen MPs. Tenor of the counter-motion: The motion should not be submitted until the “final end of the military conflict in Ukraine” and Germany’s neutrality in the conflict.

The line of conflict runs – as in other foreign and defense policy issues – directly through the dual leadership of the AfD. While Weidel always supported the reintroduction of compulsory military service, her co-chair Tino Chrupalla publicly expressed doubts. According to information from the East German associations, the initiatives against the application were star coordinated with him.

Möller’s countermotion should now also be withdrawn. The faction leadership is trying to make the conflict deeper. It was not about a power-political dispute, but about questions of conviction, it was said. The East German AfD MPs are under enormous pressure from their own base on this issue. This should be taken into account.

Weidel seems to be primarily concerned with external impact. Even if the Lucassen motion is likely to receive a clear majority in the parliamentary group, in the final vote in the Bundestag there would be at least 20 abstentions and votes against from within the parliamentary group. This would expose the conflict to everyone in the plenary hall.

The group assumes that a majority will follow the board’s recommendation this Tuesday. However, the dispute within the party does not end there. Proponents of conscription don’t want to just give up. “If we want to be able to govern, then we cannot withdraw from such central issues because of a difference of opinion,” said one MP star.

There is also criticism of the chairwoman: “Weidel has made a decision: unity in the parliamentary group takes precedence over content.” Weidel “caved in before Höcke”.