AfD starts cleaning up: Does the party tip your attitude towards Russia?

In the end he gave up. Matthias Moosdorf’s concern was probably too great that he collected a clap in the AfD team in the AfD team in the Bundestag. At the beginning of the parliamentary group meeting last Tuesday, the seats were distributed in the foreign committee. Moosdorf, most recently spokesman for the faction, lost one martial candidate after another. In the duel for tenth and last place in the committee, there was no longer at all.

Moosdorf is the first victim of a new AfD strategy. The party wants to present itself less Russia -friendly. And here a foreign policy spokesman who regularly travels to Russia and even holds a honorary professorship at the Kremlin-close Gnessin Academy fits the picture here.

Many in the party, especially in the west, have long been a thorn in the side. There were, for example, predecessor Petr Bystron, for example, against which the suspected bribery from Russia is being investigated; Members who praised Putin’s re -election after their work as a “election observer” in Russia; The visit to the party leader Tino Chrupalla, who took part in the festivities in the Russian embassy in the Russian embassy in 2023 in the festivities for the anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

The latter was officially prohibited from the party leadership, including Chrupalla, this year. A humiliation for the Saxons, who had to join the attitude of his co-boss Alice Weidel. The Russia friends, representative of Chrupalla and Moosdorf, lose power.

It can be heard from the party that Weidel takes the path of the reasonably clear distancing for AfD conditions, if not. This fits that with Markus Frohnmaier one of her confidants from his own state association of Baden-Württemberg has been elected as the new foreign policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group.

While shortly after the start of the Russian invasion bystron, the Putin-Narrative spread in the Bundestag that the West is part of the war in the war in Ukraine, other tones can be heard from the party today. Hannes Gnauck, for example, a member of the Federal Executive Board and the Defense Committee, told the star“Russia would enforce its interests as a recessed great power” with a “certain brutality and ruthlessness” and at the same time warns “only of your own strength and willingness to defend it” could be the appropriate answer here. Russia is neither “our friend nor our enemy”.

At the same time, the AfD tries to approach the USA. Already in the election campaign, the party surprised with a verbal pandering to the nation, which many members and followers have been identified as an enemy in the past. Even Björn Höcke, anything but a transatlantic, suddenly found words for Washington. The reason is in the White House. The party received tailwind from US President Donald Trump, especially from his vice and the consultant Elon Musk, in the Bundestag election campaign. More than in previous years from Russia – so some are blaspheming.

With its target change change, the party should combine three hopes. On the one hand, you want to make yourself more connected to possible political partners. With a moderate picture to the outside, the AfD wants to make the fire wall crumble. In addition to a distance to Moscow, this also includes a tamer appearance in the plenum – both at the speaker desk and with the MPs in the places. It will yet be shown whether this is more than pure lip service.

As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported, individual MPs are also of the opinion that no voters can currently be won with Russia as a friend. Again and again Chrupalla in particular had publicly claimed that Putin had stretched the hand of peace to the West. But Putin’s behavior in the past few weeks makes this argument be out of the world.

And then there is the fear of a prohibition procedure against the AfD. After becoming aware of the graduation by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, US Vice President JD Vance had criticized the process of strange the federal government. In the AfD there is hope that the supposed patron saint of freedom of expression Donald Trump would intervene in an emergency. At least the US support can increase the fear of initiating a procedure, according to the parliamentary group. In the “Politico” podcast, the deputy parliamentary group leader Beatrix von Storch said: “Of course we also like to expect support from the USA. I think we can use them well.”

How credible is the apparently new course of the AfD? Of all things, the figure that is supposed to herald this change makes you doubt. The newly elected foreign policy spokesman Frohnmaier visited the peninsula after the annexation of the Crimea, which was contrary to international law, and described them as Russian. The “Spiegel” in 2019 also reported it as a possible helper, the “Spiegel” in 2019.

On the “Süddeutsche” request, Frohnmaier replied that he couldn’t do anything for supposed or actual plans for any or so one way or another.

In addition, the fear of loss of votes seems too advanced. For the AfD, the surveys last continued. At the moment, the party is 24 percent in most surveys. Especially in the east, proximity to Russia can even help in elections. With Chrupalla, Moosdorf, Maximilian Krah, who, like Bystron, is accused of accepting Russian funds, and the parliamentary group leader in the state parliament of Jörg Urban are bustling in Saxony.

It cannot be said exactly where the AfD is foreign policy. Today’s international football jersey day in the Bundestag did not allow any new conclusions. In all other factions, some of the MPs appeared in colorful players that the Greens had a few Germany jerseys. The AfD completely waived-both on Russian and US jerseys.