The polarization that the European Union (EU) causes in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will make it impossible to even discuss the program with which it will run for the 2024 European elections. Party executive at the congress that is taking place in the capital of Saxony-Anhalt is finally diluted to January. "Things could get difficult. We hope we can manage with night sessions but if there is no agreement we will not have the debate program until January next year," said AfD co-president Tino Chrupalla. His partner in charge, Alice Weidel, already assumes that "it's very likely that we won't get the show and we'll have to leave in January."
That would mean that the only result of this congress, focused exclusively on Europe, would be the preparation of the list for the European Parliament, an institution in which he does not believe and for which he has come to ask, and therein lies the irony, its dissolution.
The list was closed this Saturday. The maximum number was 30 people and, to enter the competition, the congressmen established, among other requirements, a minimum of five years of professional activity outside of politics, a minimum time of affiliation to the party to avoid potential careerists and good English skills. After a seven-minute presentation speech, the candidates had to submit to two questions. One of the AfD's mantras is transparency.
The election of the head of the list for the elections that will allow the AfD to fight, from within, against some community institutions that they consider "undemocratic" and "pernicious", was less painful. Four candidates stood but the balance was clearly tipped towards Maximilian Krah MEP. And there have been no surprises. As well as ticking all the boxes, Krah, who passes for a charismatic and intelligent politician in the AfD, is well connected in the party's more radical and increasingly influential wing. Krah is one of them. He has published a book entitled Politics from the Right through Götz Kubitschek's ultra-right publishing house Antaios, which is watched over by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The first edition is already sold out. Krah appears in several places in reports from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which examine how dangerous the AfD is for democracy.
As a lawyer, he represented protesters from the Pegida anti-immigration movement and the group of men who tied an Iraqi refugee to a tree, but that, he rightly asserts, is guaranteeing the right to defense guaranteed to all by the Constitution.
His ideas breed quotes that equate EU membership with "a woman who gets beat up at home, but she doesn't leave voluntarily; usually you have to help her, show her an alternative." On social platforms, she video explains to a target group of young men that they should not watch porn and should not vote green. "Real men are on the right," she says.
All this is not a disadvantage, but rather an advantage for a career in the AfD. So much so that analysts consider Krah a threat to Chrupalla. With his support for his candidacy, the co-chair confirms that he prefers to have him in Brussels and Strasbourg rather than in Berlin.
But Krah, in addition to being charismatic and skilled, is a difficult character to control. "Attackable" is the word most used by friends and enemies when they talk about him. The list of his attack points is long. He was suspended for three months from the Identity and Democracy (ID) faction, of which the AfD is a part in the European Parliament, on accusations of fraud. In 2022, he was punished with the same sanction for supporting Éric Zemmour in the French electoral campaign instead of Marine Le Pen, who belongs to ID, founded in 2019. It is currently the sixth strongest group in the European Parliament, with 62 members. Its leader is Marco Zanni, from the Italian xenophobic Liga party. Also in this group are the Austrian FPÖ, the Belgian Vlaams Belang, the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy Party, the Danish People's Party and the Estonian Conservative People's Party.
The AfD has decided at this congress to continue in this umbrella organization to join forces around a common goal, the re-founding of the EU. "The ID group is a very suitable platform to further promote networking with the AfD's sister European parties," says co-chair Alice Weidel. Not only that. ID affiliation would increase resources at the expense of the EU budget, always based on the number of MEPs from its member parties.
The ID Group claims to be "actively working to devolve competences and power from the EU to the Member States, federal states, municipalities and therefore to the citizens". The EU must "stop interfering in the internal affairs of its member states", demand right-wing populists. The fight against immigration is one of the central points of his work.
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