Weidel and Chrupalla: How the AfD bickers in internal chats

“KGB methods!” writes a chat participant, referring to the AfD federal chairman Tino Chrupalla, who had to go to the hospital during a performance because of a possible puncture in his upper arm. It’s an “attempted murder.” “Indications of an assassination attempt are at least increasing,” a colleague agrees. You can also read about “Hetzpresse”. The reason for the excitement in the chat: The ARD morning magazine is talking to the police, who have so far found no evidence of an attack.

The private Facebook group “Berliner AfD Salon” cannot do without loud noise. The “Salon” has around 500 members and is one of the established opinion forums in the AfD world. A number of party officials and members of the Bundestag are members, including former Alice Weidel. Tino Chrupalla joined last year.

Is the AfD press office on “collective vacation”?

But the members also discuss things in a differentiated way in the “Salon”. These days they have been intensively dealing with the external image of their party, with the image that has just emerged from two incidents. Initially, a spokesman for Alice Weidel spoke of a “security-related incident”. The AfD leader canceled an appearance in Bavaria, but, as a spokesman for the Federal Criminal Police Office made clear, “not at the instigation or recommendation of the BKA.” Alice Weidel was then seen in a restaurant in Mallorca. This week Tino Chrupalla canceled a performance in Ingolstadt because of the alleged sting. The co-chair was treated in a hospital.

“I wonder (…) whether our press office is currently on collective vacation,” writes an employee of an AfD MEP in the “Salon” chat. “Meanwhile, all sorts of rumors are rife on social media. From an alleged Ukrainian ‘death list’ to a wasp sting.” A chat colleague, office manager of an AfD member of the state parliament, is also dissatisfied. “We can now produce outrage tiles on an assembly line,” he replies, “but there is still a lot of learning to be done when it comes to interactive communication.”

Employees of MPs as “fighting troops for their own careers”

In another discussion contribution, the “press work in the Weidel and Chrupalla cases” is rated as “poor”. The explanation: “Outside one’s own bubble there is the impression that Weidel is on vacation in Malle instead of an election campaign and Chrupalla is stylizing a wasp sting as a terrorist attack. Extremely unprofessional.” The author writes about the “addiction to profiling” of all those who have spoken out publicly. Then he basically says: “Most MPs see themselves as an I-AG and their taxpayer-financed staff as a fighting force for their own careers.”

This is an ugly finding for his party, and the AfD man goes even further. There is a lack of discipline in the AfD, an “anarcho mentality” prevails, and: “When selecting employees, belonging to the right group often takes precedence over qualifications.” One can probably assume that the author of the post knows what he is writing about – he himself works for an AfD MP.

The Weidel deputy defends himself – angrily

Norbert Kleinwächter also belongs to the chat group; he has been one of the deputy chairmen of the AfD parliamentary group for two years. Kleinwächter had publicly commented on the alleged threat to Alice Weidel and said that the party leader was in a “safehouse”. The right-wing newspaper “Junge Freiheit”, which is valued in the AfD, criticized Kleinwächter for this in a comment. The text had the heading: “The AfD and its busybodies.”

The comment resonates in the “Salon” chat. One member analyzes that the AfD is incapable of “coordinated communication,” “everyone makes a name for themselves with their limited knowledge.” The ordinary party members have to gather their own information, and “in the end, the mainstream media cooks a soup out of this jumble of information that puts the AfD itself on the defensive.”

Kleinwächter apparently feels under pressure to justify himself in the chat. “I didn’t straddle in,” writes the Brandenburg resident. He only used what was on the speaking note that was distributed after Weidel’s canceled campaign appearance. “Everyone, really everyone, had to derive from this official wording a protected apartment and restricted mobility, not the beach bar on Mallorca,” says Kleinwächter.

Kleinwächter knows that harsh media criticism is always well received in his party. However, AfD politicians do not often turn against newspapers from the right-wing milieu. But the pressure to defend yourself is obviously great. The author of “Junge Freiheit” threw “dirt” at him, writes Kleinwächter. The article will result in criminal charges for defamation. “He will pay for this,” announces Kleinwächter in the “Salon” chat.

A sad joke that doesn’t work

Meanwhile, not all members there are convinced that the party should make political capital out of threatening situations. “Do you have to make so much noise?” asks a long-time party official from North Rhine-Westphalia. The AfD man apparently doesn’t think much of his party pretending to be a victim. “I would be happy if our big-headed victims behaved a little more wisely,” he writes, and discusses his own past in the right-wing radical party “The Republicans.” There he became a “victim of left-wing violence” several times. “This was reported, but not made public so as not to scare other active members, especially young members.”

However, this approach is unlikely to work, not in the constantly agitated AfD and not in the “salon” chat of its politicians and officials. The man from North Rhine-Westphalia posted a photo of a single-axle trailer with a party logo. “Found: an AfD supporter who doesn’t complain,” is written above the picture. It’s a joke that doesn’t work here.

There is not a single laughing emoji on the post.