Internal fights within German Eurosceptics

In a phone conference, the federal board of the German Eurosceptic party AfD decided to exclude Thuringia’s AfD leader and head of the group in the regional parliament Börn Höcke from the party. This decision came after a controversial speech of Höcke delivered in Dresden in January. Thuringia’s AfD leader criticized the holocaust memorial in Berlin as a “memorial of shame” and demanded a “180 degree U-turn” in official German history of policy. Höcke’s speech was harshly criticized by German and international mainstream media, the AfD functionary was called an “extremist”. But also within the AfD party Höcke faced criticism by many other functionaries such as party leader Frauke Petry and MEP Marcus Pretzell.

The polarizing struggle about Höcke highlights the conflict of the different camps within the 2013 founded AfD party which roots much deeper. The defenders of Höcke are represented by vice party chairman and leader of the regional parliament fraction in Brandenburg, Alexander Gauland and his allies, the anti-Höcke camp by Petry and Pretzell and their followers.

Despite media reports this conflict cannot be interpreted as a political struggle between the “liberal” and the “national conservative” wing of the AfD party. It was the former CDU functionary Gauland who criticized Petry and Pretzell in the past for their alliance with the French Front National and its leader Marine Le Pen while he preferred to be closer to French liberal-conservative Francois Fillon.

The decision of the federal board of the party is now heavily disputed inside the party: Some members and functionaries speak already about a “split” of the AfD.

The decision to ban Höcke is not final yet. The party courts in Thuringia and on the federal level will have to check if Höcke really violated the party rules with his speech from Dresden.