In the new federal executive board of the AfD there is a representative of the Young Alternative (JA), the youth party whose statements and actions a few years ago attracted the attention of the authorities responsible for the protection of the constitution. At that time, among other things, close connections to the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement were the cause of interest.
At the AfD federal party conference in Riesa, Carlo Clemens achieved the narrowest, but at the same time the most loudly celebrated election result in his candidacy for the sixth assessor in the executive committee. This was also because the members of the Junge Alternative present, when the time came, abandoned their information stand in the hall foyer and other activities and cheered their leader.
Clemens thanked him with emotion on his Twitter news channel: “So many people have hopes and expectations of me and my work.” In the previous survey of the board of directors, it became clear that this did not apply to all AfD delegates and that he had all sorts of reservations – less political , rather age-typical – were countered, for example that the 32-year-old was doing a promotion here based on the pattern “delivery room, lecture room, plenary room”. Clemens, who has just moved into the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia as a member of parliament, replied angrily that when politics was over, he could simply go to work with a degree in German and history.
Goal: Intra-party integration
The two party chairmen, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, would like to see Clemens on their board of directors because he corresponds to their strategy of internal party integration. While the former AfD chairman Jörg Meuthen sought confrontation with right-wing exponents in the party and tried to set examples, the new leadership relies on the cooperation of the various currents. The JA boss has already demonstrated his skills in this regard.
After the radicalized Junge Alternative was on the brink of dissolution three years ago, Clemens, then state chairman of North Rhine-Westphalia, pushed through a moderation of its program (which had previously included, for example, the demand for a curfew for male asylum seekers from 8 p.m.). He saved the party youth from falling apart, and later became its national chairman. But his efforts at the time to remove “avoidable attack surfaces” seem to be a Sisyphean project. The AfD Lower Saxony has just refused to recognize the state youth association for right-wing extremist behavior – four months before the local state elections.