AfD Thuringia

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AfD Thuringia
Bjorn Höcke
Bjorn Höcke 		Stefan Möller
Stefan Möller 		Alternative-for-Germany-Logo-2013.svg
Chairperson Björn Höcke and
Stefan Möller
Deputy Tosca Kniese
Jürgen Pohl
Treasurer Stefan Schröder
Establishment date April 27, 2013
Place of foundation Manor
Headquarters Alte Chaussee 87
99097 Erfurt -Waltersleben
Landtag mandates
22/90
Number of members 911 (as of April 2017)
Website afd-thueringen.de

The AFD Thuringia is the Thuringian State Association of the party Alternative for Germany (AFD). The regional association is led by Björn Höcke and Stefan Möller as regional chairmen. With Höcke as the top candidate, the state party ran for the first time in the state elections in 2014 and then entered the Thuringian state parliament . For the  2017 federal election  , the AfD ran in Thuringia with Stephan Brandner as the top candidate. Again with Höcke as the top candidate, the AfD became the second strongest force in the 2019 state election and moved into the state parliament with 22 members.

history

State party conference of the AfD on April 9, 2016 in Arnstadt

AfD Thuringia was founded on April 27, 2013 in Herrenhof . The founding of the Ilm-Kreis association by the controversial AfD member Paul Latussek led to the party distancing itself. In 2013 it became known that a well-known neo-Nazi had also joined the party and had subsequently left the party. The first state chairman, Matthias Wohlfarth, was also attested to having the right ideas. In 2014 Björn Höcke and Stefan Möller took over the association. In the same year, Sieghardt Rydzewski resigned from the party with publicity . In particular, observers noticed a proximity to the New Right , for example Günter Scholdt was a consultant at the regional association. He gave impetus for the right-wing populist "10 theses for the Free State of Thuringia" by Höcke.

In the state elections in Thuringia in 2014 , the party succeeded in entering the state parliament with 10.6% of the votes when it first participated . She received votes from former voters from the CDU (18,000), Left (16,000), FDP (11,000) and Greens (1,000). The election campaign was characterized by a “ populist note” on the subject of asylum , according to political scientist Torsten Oppelland . The group had eleven members. In the constituent meeting on September 22, 2014, the parliamentary group executive committee was elected. Björn Höcke was elected chairman of the parliamentary group, Wiebke Muhsal and Stephan Brandner as deputies and Stefan Möller as parliamentary managing director. Other members of the parliamentary group were Oskar Helmerich , Corinna Herold , Jens Krumpe , Jörg Henke , Olaf Kießling , Thomas Rudy and Siegfried Gentele .

In March 2015, the state party conference of AfD Thuringia in Arnstadt passed the " Erfurt Resolution ". On April 15, 2015, the parliamentary group announced the expulsion of Gentele, who was now a non-attached member of the parliament . In May, Helmerich and Krumpe left the parliamentary group. After the AfD federal party conference in July 2015, at which party leader Bernd Lucke was voted out and then left the AfD, all three members of the party left the party. The AfD parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament now had eight members.

On September 23, 2015, around 5,000 people in Erfurt took part in a demonstration against the asylum policy organized by AfD Thuringia . After an appearance by the state chairman Höcke on the ARD broadcast Günther Jauch on October 18, 2015, the federal executive distanced himself from him: He was only "to speak for the Thuringia state association, but not for the federal party". The “large majority of AfD members” do not see themselves represented by the “style of appearance”.

In May 2016, research by the Thüringer Allgemeine made it known that members of the state parliament and employees of the AfD Thuringia had founded an AfD camouflage association under the name Bürgerbündnis für Thüringen in September of the previous year . The place of foundation was the headquarters of the opinion research institute INSA from Hermann Binkert , who also took part in the meeting. The association was used, for example, to rent a space that the private owner expressly did not want to rent to the AfD.

At the beginning of July 2017, the deputy chairwoman of the AfD Thuringia, Steffi Brönner, resigned. She accused the state party of right-wing extremist ideas and filling central positions with known right-wing extremists. The impetus for Brönner's resignation were two concerts planned for July 2017 in Themar with a right-wing extremist background, for which Bodo Dressel, the mayor of the neighboring community of Grimmelshausen , who left the AfD a few days before Brönner's resignation at the end of June 2017 , had made his parcel available. The AfD Thuringia accused Brönner of resigning out of disappointment about not being able to reach the list for the 2017 federal election . After the 2017 federal election, Stephan Brandner entered the Bundestag as the top candidate of the state party and resigned his state parliament mandate, so that Klaus Rietschel moved up to the state parliament, who, however, left the party and parliamentary group on January 15, 2019, thus reducing the parliamentary group to seven members .

politics

Party platform

Before the state elections in 2014, the AfD Thuringia developed its first election platform. In the refugee crisis in Germany from 2015 , the AfD Thuringia calls for national upper limits. In the Greek national debt crisis , the AfD Thuringia is calling for an end to financial support from German tax money.

The regional association is in favor of reducing the number of members in the Thuringian state parliament. A draft law introduced by the AfD parliamentary group in May 2016 provided for the number of MPs to be reduced from the current 91 to 62.

The pension concept of the Thuringian AfD provides for the contribution assessment limit to be retained for the time being. According to the social researcher and mathematician Gerd Bosbach, this is anti-social because it means that top earners have to pay a lower proportion of their income than low-wage earners. The employers are the beneficiaries of this concept. In addition, the aim is to extend the working life both by abolishing the upper limit for retirement and by lowering the working age. Tax-financed surcharges for recipients of small pensions should only be available for German citizens. This concept thus violates Article 3 of the Basic Law .

Politics in the state parliament

In January 2019, shortly before Holocaust Remembrance Day , the foundation informed the Buchenwald Concentration Camp memorial that it considered it necessary that “representatives of the AfD do not take part in a commemoration event at these locations unless they are credible from the anti-democratic, distance from anti-human rights and historical revisionist positions in your party. "

classification

Since 2015, "in the Thuringian regional association of the AfD, political concepts of nationalist right-wing extremism have taken control of the discourse," according to a study by the right-wing extremism competence center at Friedrich Schiller University Jena ( Matthias Quent , Franziska Schmidtke and Axel Salheiser). According to the political scientist Hajo Funke (2016), the parliamentary group has a “ right-wing extremist thrust”, and he attested the party chairman to have “völkisch-nationalist extremism ”. In the Thuringian regional association, “German nationalist voices with clear orientations in a right-wing extremist direction”, as the political scientist Armin Pfahl-Traughber (2016) noted. According to the social scientist Alexander Häusler (2019) “a right radicalization process has developed” in the Thuringian AfD.

Evaluation by the protection of the constitution

At the beginning of September 2018, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Thuringia declared the country's AfD to be a test case. Openly accessible material is evaluated during these inspection processes, the preliminary stage to secret service observation. The occasion was, among other things, various statements by her spokesman Björn Höcke as well as his joint participation with neo-Nazis in a so-called funeral march in Chemnitz on September 1, 2018. Höcke also spread folk-nationalist content in an interview published in book form and at the "Kyffhäusertreffen" by AfD Saxony and Thuringia announced the "time of the wolf", with which he described a tactic of the AfD towards the police during demonstrations. He also called on police officers to refuse to give orders. Höcke's speech on the Holocaust memorial is also part of the party's tendency for the protection of the constitution, in which extremist positions are becoming more influential.

In November, the Constitutional Court in Thuringia rejected a lawsuit by the AfD against its public classification as a test case by the head of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan J. Kramer, as inadmissible. The applications were made in an organ dispute , but the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was not treated as a constitutional body or an organ in rank or function. AfD boss Höcke announced that he would pursue the matter legally; the AfD also filed a lawsuit with the administrative court in Weimar.

In March 2020, the AfD regional association of Thuringia was classified as a suspected case by the state authority for the protection of the constitution. There are “sufficient actual indications for efforts against the free democratic basic order”.

organization

Membership numbers
08/2014 350
12/2015 535
02/2016 620
04/2016 700
12/2016 952

The party organs of the regional association are the regional party congress, the regional executive committee and the regional arbitration tribunal. The latter decides on internal party disputes and can expel members.

State party conference

The highest party organ is the  state party congress . He elects the  state board , the  auditors  and the state arbitration tribunal. The state party congress takes place as a general assembly. If the number of party members exceeds 500, the state party conference can take place as an assembly of delegates. The members of the state board are members of the state party conference in accordance with the statutes. The district associations send a delegate for five members each.

State party conferences
No. date place State Chairperson /
Leading Candidate 		Election result theme
01st state party conference April 27, 2013 Manor Arndt Breustedt
Matthias Wohlfarth 		Establishment of the regional association; Election of the state board
01st state party conference April 27, 2013 Manor Michael Kaufmann Election of the state list for the 2013 federal election
Extraordinary
state party conference 		August 24, 2013 Power village Michaela Merz
Matthias Wohlfarth 		New election of the state executive
02nd state party conference 1st of February 2014 Arnstadt Bjorn Höcke Election of the state list for the state election 2014
03rd state party conference June 14, 2014 Stadtroda Björn Höcke and
Stefan Möller 		New election of the state executive;
Decision on a provisional election platform for the 2014 state elections
04th state party conference 14./15. March 2015 Arnstadt Decision of the Erfurt resolution ; By-election to the state executive
election of the delegates to state party conferences, to the federal party conference and to the convention
05th state party conference April 9, 2016 Arnstadt Resolutions of programmatic position papers etc. a. on equality policy
06th state party conference October 22, 2016 Arnstadt Björn Höcke and
Stefan Möller 		94%
84% 		Election of the regional executive committee, the regional arbitration tribunal and the delegates to the convention
07th state party conference 18./19. February 2017 Arnstadt Stephan Brandner 91% Election of the state list for the 2017 federal election
08th state party conference 1./2. April 2017 Berlstedt Election of the delegates to the federal party congress
09th state party conference 3rd February 2018 Arnstadt By-elections to the state board and to the state arbitration tribunal; Amendment of the state statutes
10th state party conference 13./14. October 2018
27./28. October 2018 		Arnstadt Bjorn Höcke 84% Election of the state list for the state election 2019
11th state party conference 3rd / 4th November 2018 Pfiffelbach Björn Höcke and
Stefan Möller 		81%
71% 		New elections for the state board
12th state party conference 17./18. August 2019 Arnstadt Decision of the election program for the state election 2019

State Board

Since February 2018, the state executive has consisted of the following members:

State chairman Björn Höcke (MdL), Stefan Möller (MdL)
Deputy State Chair Tosca Kniese (Member of the Bundestag), Jürgen Pohl (Member of the Bundestag)
Treasurer Stefan Schröder
Deputy Treasurer Stefan Mäurer
Assessor René Aust (MdL), Torben Braga (MdL), Jens Dietrich, Birgit Noll, Robert Stuhlmann (MdL)
MdL = member of the state parliament; MdB = member of the Bundestag

District associations

The AfD Thuringia has nine district associations, in each of which two or more independent cities and districts are combined. The boundaries of the district associations correspond to the Bundestag constituencies 189 to 197 inclusive according to the constituency division in the 20th law amending the Bundestag election law. The district associations have statutory, financial and personal autonomy.

Party leader

Term of office Party chairman
April 2013 - June 2014 Matthias Wohlfarth
from June 2014 Björn Höcke , Stefan Möller

Group leaders

Term of office Parliamentary group leader
from September 2014 Bjorn Höcke

Young alternative Thuringia

The AfD youth is organized in the regional association of Young Alternative Thuringia . At the 2015 general meeting in Jena , Wiebke Muhsal , member of the state parliament, was elected state spokeswoman. Robert Mochrie was elected as deputy state chairman, Denny Jankowski as treasurer and Hendrik Urban and Martin Zugehör as assessors.

The JA Thuringia announced the following in 2016 to the Mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker (independent) on their Facebook page in 2016: "If politics does not act, people in the future may really keep an 'arm's length' distance, Ms. Reker." The comment was below a black and white photograph of a hand with a pistol. The public prosecutor's office in Gera then checked whether they were initiating investigations against the “Young Alternative Thuringia” because of the public call for acts of violence or vigilante justice. Several complaints were also received against JA Thuringia as the author.

Election results

State elections
year Number of votes Share of votes Seats Top candidate
2014 99,545 10.6% 11 Bjorn Höcke
2019 259,382 23.4% 22nd Bjorn Höcke
Bundestag elections
year Number of votes Share of votes Seats Top candidate
2013 76.013 6.2% 0 Michael Kaufmann
2017 294.045 22.7% 5 Stephan Brandner

In the 2017 federal election, the AfD became clear after second votes in Gera (28.5%) and just under the strongest party in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district (27.0%). Overall, it performed slightly better in rural areas than in the cities, with the AfD becoming the strongest party in many communities in the southeast of the country from Hildburghausen to Altenburg, in the northern Thuringian basin between Mühlhausen and Artern and around Arnstadt. While the economic situation of these areas is not bad everywhere, they are characterized by an above-average population decline, combined with the dismantling of infrastructure (doctors, retail, public transport, schools, etc.).

European elections
year Number of votes Share of votes
2014 68.011 7.4%
2019 236,566 22.5%

Parliamentary group

2019 were for the AFD in the Thuringian state parliament elected:

Deputy Moving in over Functions / memberships
René Aust , speaker Schmalkalden-Meiningen II constituency Assessor
Torben Braga , political scientist List place 6 Deputy Parliamentary Managing Director; Assessor
Jens Cotta , banking economist Kyffhäuserkreis II constituency Deputy Group Chairman
Torsten Czuppon , police officer Constituency Sömmerda II
Karlheinz Frosch , management consultant Constituency Saalfeld-Rudolstadt I
Birger Gröning , physiotherapist Constituency Gotha I
Jörg Henke , works foreman List position 11
Corinna Herold , dentist List place 10
Björn Höcke , teacher List position 1 Group chairman; Co-country chairman
Denny Jankowski , process engineer List position 3 Deputy Group Chairman
Nadine Hoffmann , biologist Constituency Hildburghausen I - Schmalkalden-Meiningen III
Michael Kaufmann , engineer List position 7
Olaf Kießling , business economist Constituency Ilm District II Deputy Group Chairman
Tosca Kniese , business lawyer List position 4 Deputy State Chair
Dieter Laudenbach , industrial engineer List position 12
Wolfgang Lauerwald , doctor Constituency Gera II
Ringo Mühlmann , police officer List place 14
Stefan Möller , lawyer List position 11 Parliamentary Director; Co-country chairman
Thomas Rudy , restaurateur Altenburger Land I constituency
Lars Schütze , police officer Constituency Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis II
Robert Stuhlmann , lawyer List position 5 Assessor
Uwe Thrum , master carpenter Constituency Saale-Orla District I

Regional group in the German Bundestag

The state list for the 2017 federal election was drawn up at a party congress on February 18, 2017 in Arnstadt . The state party entered the 19th German Bundestag with five candidates who are part of the AfD parliamentary group :

MP Moving in over Functions / memberships
Stephan Brandner List position 1
Jürgen Pohl List place 2 Deputy State Chairman
Marcus Buhl List position 3
Robby throat List position 4
Anton Friesen List position 5

literature

Web links

Commons : Alternative for Germany in Thuringia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Party members by federal state
  2. ^ Michael Bartsch: Anti-euro party with old rights. taz.de, May 7, 2013, accessed April 16, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Martin Debes: Thuringian AfD distances itself from condemned seducers. thueringer-allgemeine.de, May 8, 2013, accessed on April 16, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Alexander Häusler , Rainer Roeser: The right ›courage‹ citizens. Origin, development, personnel and positions of the »Alternative for Germany« . VSA Verlag, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-89965-640-4 , p. 95 ff.
  5. ↑ Hannelore Crolly: The AfD oracle from Seitenroda. welt.de, June 2, 2014, accessed April 16, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Torsten Oppelland : The Thuringian state election of September 14, 2014: starting shot for the experiment of a red-red-green coalition under left leadership . In: Journal for Parliamentary Questions 46 (2015) 1, pp. 39–56.
  7. ↑ Torsten Oppelland : The Thuringian state election of September 14, 2014: starting shot for the experiment of a red-red-green coalition under left leadership . In: Journal for Parliamentary Questions 46 (2015) 1, pp. 39–56, here: p. 45.
  8. ↑ Thuringian AfD parliamentary group chooses its top: Jenaerin and Geraer vice . ( otz.de [accessed on September 10, 2017]).
  9. ^ AfD throws MP Gentele out of the parliamentary group. MDR Thuringia, April 15, 2015, archived from the original on April 15, 2015 ; accessed on April 15, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from May 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ AfD parliamentary group loses another MP: Krumpe resigns. inSüdthüringen.de, May 29, 2015, accessed on June 2, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Martin Debes: Member of the state parliament leaves AfD. Thüringer Allgemeine, July 7, 2015, accessed on July 22, 2015 .
  13. ^ Two MPs in Thuringia left AfD. inSüdthüringen.de, July 10, 2015, accessed on July 22, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Martin Debes: 5,000 people demonstrate against refugee policy. MDR, September 24, 2015, archived from the original on September 25, 2015 ; Retrieved September 25, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Bülend Ürük: After appearing on "Günther Jauch": AfD leaders distance themselves from Björn Höcke. kress.de, October 21, 2015, accessed on October 22, 2015 .
  16. ↑ http://www.thueringer-allgemeine.de/web/zgt/suche/detail/-/specific/Buergerbuendnis-fuer-Thueringen-Im-Dunstkreis-der-AfD-1613110014
  17. ↑ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/alternative-fuer-deutschland-thueringer-afd-vize-sicht-rechtsextreme-tendenzen-und-tritt-zurueck/20019906.html
  18. ↑ Höcke's deputy accuses Thuringian AfD of right-wing extremist tendencies . ( thueringer-allgemeine.de [accessed on July 5, 2017] payment barrier).
  19. ↑ Landlord for right-wing rock concerts has left the AfD , thueringer-allgemeine.de, July 1, 2017, accessed on November 5, 2018 (pay barrier).
  20. ↑ Michael Bartsch: Right with a distance to the AfD. In: taz.de , July 6, 2017, accessed November 5, 2018.
  21. ^ Matthias Meisner: AfD vice sees right-wing extremist tendencies - and resigns . In: tagesspiegel.de , July 5, 2017, accessed November 5, 2018.
  22. ↑ Media: Member of Parliament Klaus Rietschel leaves AfD. In: insuedthueringen.de. January 15, 2019, accessed January 15, 2019 .
  23. ↑ 30 fewer MPs: AfD proposal for a smaller Thuringian state parliament is rejected by the Thuringian General, May 19, 2016, accessed on May 19, 2016.
  24. ↑ AfD postpones pension party conference to 2020 . In: Der Spiegel , July 21, 2019, accessed on July 17, 2019.
  25. ↑ Stephan Hebel: The national-social paint of the AfD . Interview with Gerd Bosbach . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , July 17, 2019, accessed on July 17, 2019.
  26. ↑ AfD politicians not welcome at Holocaust remembrance in Buchenwald. www.haz.de, January 25, 2019
  27. ↑ Matthias Quent , Franziska Schmidtke, Axel Salheiser: Threats to the democratic culture in Thuringia . Expertise on the revision of the Thuringian State Program for Democracy, Tolerance and Open-mindedness (TLfDTW) on behalf of the Thuringian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Competence Center for Right-Wing Extremism, Friedrich Schiller University Jena , Jena 2016, p. 54.
  28. ^ A b Hajo Funke (with the assistance of Ralph Gabriel ): From angry citizens and arsonists. AfD - Pegida - violence networks. vbb, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-945256-64-0 , p. 85.
  29. ^ Hajo Funke (with the collaboration of Ralph Gabriel ): Von Wutbürgern und Arsonstiftern. AfD - Pegida - violence networks. vbb, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-945256-64-0 , p. 86.
  30. ↑ Armin Pfahl-Traughber : AfD, Pegida and the New Right. The new "right wave" . Humanistic Press Service , April 27, 2016.
  31. ^ AfD "more and more an openly right-wing radical party". www.deutschlandfunk.de, November 2, 2019
  32. ↑ Patrick Gensing: Thuringia: The protection of the constitution is targeting AfD. In: tagesschau.de . September 6, 2018, accessed September 7, 2018
  33. ↑ Radical Center. In: Der Spiegel 37/2018, September 8, 2018, pp. 10–19, here p. 14.
  34. ↑ AfD fails with complaint before the constitutional court. www.zeit.de, November 20, 2019
  35. ↑ The entire Thuringian AfD regional association classified as a suspected case. www.spiegel.de, March 12, 2020
  36. ↑ Torsten Oppelland: Party Profiles: Who Is Up for Voting ? - Alternative for Germany (AfD). Federal Agency for Civic Education, August 21, 2014, accessed on January 11, 2016 .
  37. ↑ Sebastian Haak: Ranks are thinning at large parties - AfD is gaining members. Thüringer Allgemeine, January 11, 2016, accessed on January 11, 2016 .
  38. ↑ AfD doubles its membership in Thuringia. Thüringer Allgemeine, February 15, 2016, accessed on February 15, 2016 .
  39. ↑ Martin Debes: Höcke wants alliance between AfD and Pegida against “Chancellor Dictator”. Thüringer Allgemeine, April 11, 2016, accessed on April 11, 2016 .
  40. ↑ MDR Thuringia: "Schulz Effect" and uncertainty bring new members. March 12, 2017, archived from the original on March 22, 2017 ; accessed on March 12, 2017 .
  41. ↑ a b State statutes of the party "Alternative for Germany", regional association of Thuringia in the version dated February 3, 2018. (PDF) Retrieved October 30, 2019 .
  42. ^ Website of the AfD Thuringia , accessed on September 22, 2014.
  43. ^ Elections to the board of the Junge Alternative Thüringen - Wiebke Muhsal is the new chairwoman. In: www.jenapolis.de. July 19, 2015, archived from the original on July 20, 2015 ; accessed on June 16, 2016 .
  44. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: Reker criticism with pistol image: Public prosecutor's office checks Facebook image with Reker criticism. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Retrieved June 16, 2016 .
  45. ↑ Call for vigilante justice? Public prosecutor's office investigates after Cologne attacks against AfD youth. In: The Huffington Post. Retrieved June 16, 2016 .
  46. ↑ Young alternative: Suspected criminal offense from Facebook entry is examined. In: www.thueringer-allgemeine.de. Retrieved June 16, 2016 .
  47. ↑ State election 2014 in Thuringia - final result
  48. ↑ State election 2019 in Thuringia - final result
  49. ↑ Bundestag election 2013 in Thuringia - final result
  50. ↑ 2017 Bundestag election in Thuringia - final result
  51. ↑ 2014 European elections in Thuringia - final result
  52. ↑ European elections 2019, Thuringia - preliminary result
  53. ^ AfD MPs in the Thuringian state parliament from 2019
  54. ^ Successful assembly of the AfD Thuringia for the state list for the 2017 federal election. AfD Compact, February 24, 2017, accessed on September 9, 2017 .
  55. ^ State lists of the parties in Thuringia - The Federal Returning Officer. Archived from the original on September 26, 2017 ; accessed on September 9, 2017 .