Young alternative: AfD wants to separate from its own youth organization

Too independent, too radical: The AfD wants to replace its youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) with a new youth association. This should be linked more closely to the party and allow the AfD more control. The AfD board decided on this change to the statutes on Monday evening. The final decision should be made at the party conference in January. The corresponding application should be coordinated with the state leaders of the AfD and representatives of the JA and submitted together.

It’s no secret that there is dissatisfaction with the JA among the AfD leadership. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified it as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort. “They could do whatever they wanted,” a high-ranking party member told the DPA news agency. The AfD has therefore long been considering establishing a new organization based on the model of the Young Socialists (“Jusos”) within the SPD.

The party conference in Riesa on January 11th and 12th should therefore recommend “an amendment to Section 17a of the Federal Statute”, which “aims at restructuring and further developing our party’s youth organization”.

The JA is relatively independent. Currently, members – apart from the board members – do not have to be in the AfD at the same time. There has been discussion for some time about the establishment of a new organization that would be more closely linked to the AfD. This would enable more action, for example in the case of regulatory measures such as party exclusion procedures. A model like that of the SPD’s Jusos is being considered. As JA boss Hannes Gnauck explained a few months ago, this would mean that every AfD member under the age of 36 would automatically also be a member of the youth organization.

“The ultimate goal must be to have a functioning youth association that does not run the risk of being banned at any time by association law,” Gnauck now told “Junge Freiheit”. Anyone who is not satisfied at the moment or has criticism of the project can submit amendments at the party conference in Riesa. Gnauck, a member of the Bundestag, is himself a member of the AfD board.

For the desired change to the statutes, the AfD leadership would need a two-thirds majority at the party conference. So far it is unclear what the chances of this happening are. However, the Young Alternative should not be dissolved. The AfD could not decide on this, it was said.

The left-wing MP Martina Renner accused the Federal Ministry of the Interior of failing: It could have banned the JA long ago according to the association law, she explained. There were enough reasons. “With the planned separation from the JA and the establishment of a new organization, the AfD is now extending its protective umbrella as a party over the JA’s activists,” she added. The integration protects the members of the JA.