The German far-right declares its aspiration for power amid protests

INTERNATIONAL / By Luis Moreno

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has declared this Friday its aspiration to participate in regional governments at a congress in Maddeburg (eastern Germany), which was accompanied by protests from various organizations at a time when the party has a high flight in the polls.

“The AfD is not interested in a peaceful Europe and is following a nationalist course. That's something we already had once in Germany and we don't want it again,” said Magdeburg Solidarity group spokesman Jan Renner, who was among the protesters.

Meanwhile, within the congressional compound, the party leadership pointed to the options they have in the various elections to come.

“We are ready for more. In Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia we can become the most voted force. Although you have to remain humble, the polls are not electoral results,” said the co-president of the party, Tino Chrupalla.. With this, Chrupalla was alluding to the three regional elections that will take place next year in eastern Germany, and in which some polls show the AfD as the party with the most votes.

In order to be part of the government, however, the AfD would need an alliance with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has a ban on cooperating with the far-right in its statutes.

In this sense, Chrupalla called on “all the patriots of the CDU to tear down the black and green wall”, insinuating that the sanitary cordon is a concession made by the conservatives to the Greens.

Chruppalla sees signs that the cordon sanitaire is losing strength and said it sometimes seems that Friedrich Merz, the CDU chairman, “would rather be head of the AfD.”

Merz recently caused controversy with statements directly or indirectly related to the AfD.

First, he said that the CDU wanted to be “an alternative for Germany but with substance”.. On another occasion, he insinuated that forms of understanding with the AfD should be sought at the municipal level, but later he rectified and recalled the existence of the sanitary cordon.

Chrupalla said his party is ready to build coalitions with anyone who makes “a policy in the interest of the citizens” but expressly excluded the Greens, calling that party “the most dangerous in Germany.”

In his speech, he also attacked the sanctions against Russia and said that the Greens, a minority partner in the current government coalition, had taken advantage of the war in Ukraine to suspend the purchase of Russian gas at low prices, which they had previously had as a political objective.

“The Greens want war with China and with Russia. The green we have is olive green,” he said, adding that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's policy had drawn Germany into the war in Ukraine.

The AfD's proposals include ending the shipment of arms to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia and a re-founding of the EU because, according to it, the current organization cannot be reformed.

However, the leadership reviewed a passage of that resolution in which the orderly dissolution of the EU was proposed and I assure you that it was a drafting error.

Although Europe will be the subject of the congress on Saturday, this Friday the group's entry into the far-right Identity and Democracy alliance was approved, although under protest from the delegates who considered this step as an exaggerated concession to the EU.

Party co-chair Alice Weidel said the AfD needs strong partners at the European level. ID belongs to parties such as the FPO in Austria, Marine Le Pen's party in France or Lega in Italy.

According to former MP Roland Hartwig, the ID program represents AfD positions such as the defense of the sovereignty of national states against what he describes as the centralism of Brussels.