Power struggle in Höcke-AfD: State parliament member should leave the party

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Things have been going better for the AfD. Your European election campaign is burdened by affairs surrounding top candidate Maximilian Krah and second-placed Petr Bystron. The poll numbers have also been falling for months because of new competition from the Sahra-Wagenknecht party. At the same time, Björn Höcke was put on trial on suspicion of having spread an SA slogan.

And now a bizarre power struggle is escalating in the Thuringian AfD, led by Höcke. According to information from star The state executive committee requested the exclusion of nine party members of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district association. They had “violated the party’s rules in a particularly serious manner and thereby caused it serious damage,” it said in a letter to the state arbitration court. It is a “conspiracy” against grassroots democratic decisions. The 16-page paper is the star before.

Höcke’s state deputy Torben Braga confirmed the decision. “Those affected deliberately disregarded or thwarted decisions made by party committees,” he said when asked star. “This behavior blatantly violates the party’s statutes and regulations.” The request for party exclusion is therefore a “logical and necessary consequence”.

Among the Höcke opponents is state parliament member Karlheinz Frosch. The senior president of the Thuringian Parliament stated that he was calm about the exclusion process. “We represent the real AfD, and I will stay with it,” he told the party star. “I won’t let myself be driven away.”

The background: Frosch was elected as the AfD’s top candidate for the district council and the Rudolstadt city council in October 2023 by the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district association against the obvious wishes of the state party leadership. Candidates close to him also won the remaining places on the list.

The opposing Höcke camp largely received nothing – and then tried to organize a new election for the list. After Frosch successfully took legal action against this, the defeated parties founded a new group in April called “Alternative for the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district” and elected their own candidates. Both lists were admitted to local elections.

Elections end in May, June and September

In this way, the AfD is de facto competing with itself, and this with the express approval of the state executive board. The alternative list to the AfD is publicly supported by Höcke: he promotes her election on posters that are displayed in the district.

At the same time, the state executive committee requested that Frosch and eight other members be excluded from the party. Through their behavior and the associated reporting, they had “significantly damaged the AfD’s external image,” the application states – and this “at a time when it is immediately before crucial elections.”

On May 26th, most of the district administrators, mayors and full-time mayors will be re-elected in Thuringia, in addition to the district councils and the city and municipal councils. Possible runoff elections will take place together with the European elections on June 9th. The state parliament will be elected on September 1st.

The top candidate for the state parliament is once again Höcke. However, he has little chance of a direct mandate in his home town of Eichsfeld, where the CDU is traditionally strong. That’s why he had been looking for a region with better chances of success for months, and Frosch’s constituency was repeatedly mentioned internally. Höcke has now had himself nominated in the Greiz district.

From Frosch’s point of view, the AfD state leader, who also leads the parliamentary group in the state parliament, bears sole responsibility for the internal party dispute. “Höcke is a self-absorbed person with narcissistic traits who cannot tolerate criticism,” said the state parliament member. “It is he who repeatedly harms the party with ill-considered slogans.” Without the polarization by the state chairman, the AfD would be “more electable and more compatible with other parties.”