Party conference: AfD wants compulsory military service and no headscarves in school

In the federal election campaign, the AfD is relying on a stricter migration policy under the keyword “remigration” and is calling for a withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. After several hours of debate at the party conference in Riesa, the delegates adopted key points of the program for the federal election. In it, the AfD also calls for an exit from the euro and the reintroduction of its own currency. A few topics are still open. The decision on the entire election program is planned for Sunday.

No condemnation of Russia and Nord Stream repair

The party rejects an explicit condemnation of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in the election program. The party conference voted against dealing with a corresponding request from Hessian delegates. The program reaffirms the AfD’s position of repairing the blown-up Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea and lifting the sanctions against Russia. There is talk of a “restoration of undisturbed trade with Russia”.

“Dexit” not in the program, compulsory military service included

Germany’s exit from the EU (Dexit), which was initially explicitly called for in the draft election program, was deleted. However, the AfD’s declared goal remains a new form of cooperation in Europe. She speaks of a “transition from the European Union to the federation of European nations” with a common market instead of the EU. The AfD is also in favor of reactivating compulsory military service in accordance with its basic program.

“Remigration” added later

The controversial word “remigration”, which was initially not found in the draft program, was inserted into the federal election program at the request of AfD European politician René Aust. Aust is deputy to Thuringia’s AfD state leader and party right winger Björn Höcke. “Remigration” was already in the AfD’s program for the European elections last year. The word was used to celebrate great successes in the European elections and the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. “We don’t allow ourselves to be told from outside what terms we have to use,” said Aust.

According to the AfD’s wishes, acquiring German citizenship should only be possible through birth as a child of at least one German parent and as a “discretionary decision in the interest of the community”.

Further points in the AfD’s election program:

The AfD is against weakening the debt brake. In the long term, the AfD is in favor of a European military alliance as an alternative to NATO. Citizenship benefit for foreigners should only be available after ten years of employment in Germany. The AfD is against any form of compulsory vaccination, explicitly also against measles, which applies to daycare and school children – Compulsory vaccination She wants to ban mail order sales of prescription drugs Unemployment benefit should only be given after three years of employment and initially limited to six months The construction of minarets and the Muezzin calls should be banned. The party wants a ban on headscarves in public institutions, especially in schools

An important chapter of the election program will only be dealt with on the second day of the party conference. The draft of the AfD election program so far states: “The family is the nucleus of our society.” Various applicants demand that the sentence also include the fact that the family consists of father, mother and children. This is tricky. If the party conference decides to do so, it could seem like an indirect disapproval of the lifestyle model of its own candidate for chancellor, who lives with a woman.

In addition to the almost 600 delegates, numerous guests also took part in the party conference, including the new-right publisher Götz Kubitschek. He is considered one of Höcke’s few confidants. Since June 2014, his Antaios publishing house has no longer been observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected case, but rather as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort.