Bang on the AfD! The long-standing party leader Jörg Meuthen (60) admits defeat and leaves the AfD, as the ARD capital studio initially reported on Friday.
Meuthen’s departure marks the temporary end of a long power struggle. He had been struggling with the radicalization in parts of the AfD for a long time and wanted the party to be more moderate. With his step, Meuthen admits that he has lost this struggle for direction.
Why exactly does Meuthen leave the AfD?
► One reason for Meuthen’s departure: the party’s corona policy. In its criticism of the measures, the party had developed something “sect-like”, said Meuthen. He is likely to allude to some radical opponents of vaccination and conspiracy theorists within his own ranks. Meuthen himself announced in June last year that he had been vaccinated, which was criticized by some members.
While many members and MPs of the party strictly reject the vaccination, Meuthen only demanded: “People must be able to decide for themselves.”
At a party conference in November 2020, Meuthen also warned that the party was aligning itself with the sometimes radical “lateral thinker movement”.
► Another problem for Meuthen was classified as right-wing extremist wing within the party around the Thuringian AfD chairman Björn Höcke (49). It was officially dissolved in 2020, but has since gained significant power in real terms. Meuthen therefore attacked the party sharply, in his opinion parts of the AfD were “not on the ground of the free-democratic basic order,” he told the WDR, NDR and ARD capital studio.
Meuthen continued: “The heart of the party today beats very far to the right. I clearly see totalitarian overtones there.”
► Meuthen found fewer and fewer well-known supporters in his party for his more moderate views. The leadership of the AfD wants to steer the party in a different direction. His former co-chairman Timo Chrupalla (46) and faction leader Alice Weidel (42) were considered opponents of Meuthens.
As early as autumn, he therefore announced that he no longer wanted to run for party chairmanship. In an interview with ARD, he named some of his opponents at the time: “Not to forget Chrupalla, Weidel, Gauland, Höcke, Brandner – they will be really happy that Meuthen is finally gone. Have they been working on it for a long time.”
Meuthen was elected party leader in 2015, along with Frauke Petry (46). She was considered moderate and could not enforce her line. That is why she left the party after the 2017 federal elections, criticizing her party colleagues’ “outlandish positions” at the time – apparently alluding to racist tones within the party.