Alternative middle

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The Alternative Mitte Deutschland (AM) is a federal working group within the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party that was formed in mid-2017 and describes itself as " free - patriotic " and " bourgeois - conservative ".

founding

In July 2017, a coalition of moderate forces formed within the AfD, who viewed extreme positions such as that of the Thuringian state spokesman and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke , who in a speech, among other things, described the Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as a “Monument of Shame”. Berengar Elsner von Gronow , chairman of the AfD Federal Convention, first founded the Alternative Mitte NRW with like-minded people in North Rhine-Westphalia in order to "finally give the moderate, the commoners a noticeable and concerted voice". He has had enough of the attempts of a minority to gain the authority to interpret the party, and of the fact that "statements by members of our party are suitable to convey the image of a not only right-wing populist , no even a right-wing extremist party to the electorate ". Dirk Driesang, then a member of the AfD federal executive committee, who after Höcke's speech had pleaded for his party to be excluded and has since left the party himself, founded a “community of interests” of the same name in Bavaria .

The then federal chairwoman Frauke Petry welcomed the group. "Exactly the members for whom I applied for the future in Cologne " organized themselves . Concerns of moderate conservatives that another internal party front would be opened shortly before the upcoming general election , Driesang countered that the AfD would not find peace as long as there was no counterweight to the wing . One does not want to build parallel structures, but rather intensify the networking of bourgeois-conservative forces in the party. Furthermore, they want to win back intellectuals , strengthen the country and its constitutional order and oppose anything that endangers them.

In September 2017, after further regional groups in Saxony-Anhalt , Hesse and Lower Saxony, the Alternative Mitte in Thuringia was founded on the Wartburg in Eisenach . Helmut Witter, co-initiator and chairman of the AfD district association in South Thuringia, said that freedom of expression was the top priority when the AfD was founded, so this must also be accepted within the party. Like the AM in Bavaria, one strives for a clear demarcation from right-wing extremism.

Von Gronow said that a vocal minority should not dominate the party's external perception. In September 2017, he estimated the number of inner-party supporters to be around 1,000 nationwide. They do not want to have a public dispute with the wing before the general election . At a meeting between Gronows and Alexander Gauland , an agreement on reluctance to make statements was nevertheless not reached. The federal chairman Jörg Meuthen was also critical of the new group. The view of its members on the party is wrong, the assumed "legal drift" of the party is not given and the grouping is therefore dispensable. When Petry and a few other members of the federal and state parliament left the AfD after the 2017 federal election , the party tried to accommodate the moderate forces and to involve them. Driesang declared that he wanted to stay in the party, criticized Petry and described a split that she had run as a "stillbirth". From a human point of view, he understands Petry's move, but politically he finds it wrong: "We as the 'alternative middle' very much regret it."

Nationwide community of interests

In October 2017, around 200 party members, in the presence of AfD co-founders Konrad Adam and Beatrix von Storch , founded the Alternative Mitte (AM) in Tettau as a nationwide, internal party interest group. The chairman of the Bundestag parliamentary group Alice Weidel canceled her participation due to illness, but called the AM in a welcoming address a "pole of reason in the party". In a speech, von Storch campaigned for a balance between the national -conservative and the liberal-conservative part of the party, for talks between the camps, the "historical responsibility from the Nazi era ", the commitment to Israel and observing red lines. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider , spokesman for the Patriotic Platform , wrote on Twitter that the interest group was changing “from a Petry support group” to a movement against the platform and the national conservative wing around Höcke. Nevertheless, one is ready to recognize the Alternative Center as “the representative of the liberal wing”, but only if its leading representatives speak out in favor of ending a party expulsion process against Höcke and repealing a resolution to demarcate the identity movement .

In a timely manner, the AM published an open letter to members and federal delegates of the AfD, in which they warned against electing people to the federal executive board who are "suitable to bring the AfD to the brink of loyalty to the constitution". One wants to deal with the important questions of the future of the country, dealing with history is not one of them: "We don't want to talk about the war guilt question, about the armed forces or the guilt cult ." They stand by the right of asylum , but see it as "protection for a while". Furthermore, they admit to the Basic Law and the religious freedom anchored there and reject "a radical, political Islam ", but not the Muslims "who have integrated themselves in large numbers as citizens of our country and practice their faith in a modern, adapted way" .

Shortly afterwards, AM groups were founded in Baden-Württemberg and Brandenburg . The Brandenburg state parliament member and assessor in the AfD federal executive committee, Steffen Königer , said that 15 party members from eight district associations had participated in the establishment, including three district chairmen . As a liberal-bourgeois platform, they want to defend the guidelines of the party program against “loud statements from the right-wing fool's seams” so that no one follows the former party leader Petry on her “wrong track”. In November 2017, the Alternative Middle Saxony was formed around the former Vice State Executive Director Thomas Hartung . In February 2018, around 20 members founded the Alternative Mitte MV in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , including Ulrike Schielke-Ziesing, Member of the Bundestag, and Christoph Grimm, Member of the Landtag .

Reactions in the AfD regional associations

The founding of the Hessian group met resistance from the state executive. Peter Münch, one of three state spokesmen, announced countermeasures. The founding is not in accordance with the statutes , and it is unacceptable that, by opposing racism and nationalism, it suggests that this does not apply to all AfD members. The core issues of the AfD were painstakingly formulated in the program discussion and at party congresses, where the Hessian AM should have contributed instead of presenting their own formulations. The lawyer and spokesman for the Landes-AM Walter Wissenbach contradicted that one was a tendency within the party like there were others, and did not intend to split, which the vast majority of the party think like them. In a written statement, the Hessian AM stated that Münch's position was not that of the regional association.

In Thuringia, too, there were conflicts between AM and the state executive. A party regulation procedure was initiated against AM spokesman Helmut Witter because he claimed to have been a founding member of the AfD and thrown out of a WhatsApp group of the party. Witter called the allegations "pulled by the hair", the state board around Björn Höcke is about fighting the AM. A member of the state executive disagreed: The connection is constructed, the state executive has nothing against an AM in Thuringia.

The Baden-Wuerttemberg state spokesman Ralf Özkara said that he wanted to let the AM as one of the movements of the party go: "A party movement cannot be forbidden, it is just there". The AM is important and should be seen as analogous to the national conservative wing of the AfD. However, they do not want a “party within the party” with structures similar to associations.

activities

At the end of February 2018, the AM planned a "Germany meeting" in Paderborn . After the owner of the premises was put under pressure by “massive hate mails ” and an announced “counter-demonstration” by left activists, he terminated the contract. The AM declared that it had decided to postpone the event to an alternative date in the near future, "taking responsibility for this medium-sized existence".

At the beginning of March 2018, the AM rejected the AfD's cooperation with Pegida , in particular with its founder Lutz Bachmann , in a press release . From their point of view, this could not take place, since the personality Bachmann "with his personal, questionable past and his connection to the so-called New Rights and the Identitarian Movement of the AfD would be detrimental." The cooperation of individual AfD functionaries with Pegida commented AM: "In the AfD there are a few functionaries and elected officials who would like to be the court jester for a small part of the people who want to be entertained on a level below parliamentary reason."

Uwe Witt , AfD member of the Bundestag and representative of the AM, welcomed André Poggenburg's resignation from the parliamentary and state chairmanship of the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt in March 2018 , after he had disparagingly expressed himself about German Turks in a speech on Political Ash Wednesday . Previously, the AM and other moderates in the party had demanded resignation and internally threatened that a shift to the right in the party would otherwise be publicly denounced. The AM had already interpreted Poggenburg's unsuccessful candidacy for a seat on the federal executive board in December 2017 as a rejection of the right wing of the party.

In April 2018, Steffen Königer , member of the Brandenburg state parliament, assessor in the AfD federal executive committee and spokesman for AM Brandenburg, reacted negatively to announcements by CDU state chief Ingo Senftleben that he wanted to hold talks about cooperation with all parties, including the AfD, after the 2019 state election. Senftleben is not about political content, but only about power.

At the end of April 2018, the AM held another nationwide meeting in Dinslaken . The approximately 200 participants saw it as a success and "successful self-cleaning process of the party" that the AM was able to accommodate four of its own people in the election of the 14 members of the federal board in December 2017 and at least three others supported the AM that in the state boards in Hesse, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate had drawn in moderate forces, that André Poggenburg had been disempowered after his speech against German Turks and that Björn Höcke had recently “hardly appeared polarizing”. However, problems with the nationalist forces in the party have not yet been resolved. In addition to Beatrix von Storch , Jörg Meuthen was also a guest at the meeting.

In May 2018, after the rejection of Björn Höcke's dismissal from the party because of his controversial speech by the Thuringian Regional Arbitration Court, the AM called on the AfD federal board to bring the case to the Federal Arbitration Court in order to "send a clear signal and exhaust the legal process." Only this way brings "the chance to establish and maintain inner peace in the party". That is also in Höcke's interest, because it is a "question of honor" for him to dispel the suspicion of a favored decision by the regional arbitration court.

When Federal Chairman Alexander Gauland made a statement at the Federal Congress of Young Alternative for Germany , Hitler and National Socialism at the beginning of June 2018, only one “bird shit” in 1000 years of German history, publicly and internally caused outrage, the AM demanded a public apology from Gauland: “This must not happen to a politician who has a minimum of tact and responsibility for our history”. AM federal spokesman Uwe Witt wrote on Facebook that Germany's biggest mass murderer, Hitler, was “by no means bird shit” and apologized “to all Jewish fellow citizens and the victims of the Nazi regime and their families for this unbelievable trivialization by our party chairman”.

After the Patriotic Platform announced its dissolution in September 2018, the AM in Saxony-Anhalt declared its work over in October. With the election of the new party executive it was achieved that “certain people were not elected to the state executive because of their character deficits” and this is now made up of representatives from the right wing and the AM. They also want to send a signal that “we never wanted to be and were never a party in the party” and give a “clear and clear rejection” of any intention to split within the AfD.

In October 2018, AM spokesman Uwe Witt welcomed the founding of the new platform Jews in the AfD (JAfD), which makes it clear that "we are an integral part of the political party landscape in Germany and that there is no place for anti-Semitism in the AfD".

reception

Matthias Kamann ( WeltN24 ) saw in the AM the attempt to give those in the AfD a platform, "who want it to be strictly conservative, but objective - not folkish or offensive". The fact that this voice has been missing so far is one of the party's many weaknesses. The right-wing camp around the state spokesman Björn Höcke in Thuringia and André Poggenburg in Saxony-Anhalt were able to drive the party further and further to the right with the support of almost a third of the party members and the benevolent tolerance of Jörg Meuthen and Alexander Gauland .

Alan Posener ( WeltN24 ) criticized, however, that the AM is more about getting rid of the "yuck factor" than changing the ideological core of the party. One wants to exclude the whole subject area Third Reich like an industrial accident in history and "the Höcke, Poggenburg, Gauland and Co. like an industrial accident of the party", although National Socialism was the product of deep-seated resentments and ideologems and Der Flügel only consistently states what from an anti-western and socio-national attitude.

Tilman Steffen ( Zeit Online ) wrote that the AM organized the Liberal Conservatives of the AfD, who are far to the right in terms of social policy, but who "still hate the Thuringian nationalist Höcke and his friend Alexander Gauland, who recently praised the Wehrmacht soldiers, they no longer feel represented ”. It is a think tank of the party that wants to bring back the spirit of Bernd Luckes and sees itself “as an alternative to the Kubitscheks and Höckes who want to build bridges to Pegida and integrate the national identity movement into the AfD”.

According to Pitt von Bebenburg ( Frankfurter Rundschau ), the AM is considered a moderate wing within the AfD. She advocates the “preservation of the nation state within safe borders and thus of the local homeland”, but rejects a “nationalism, revisionism , totalitarianism or personality cult that rises above others ”. Konrad Litschko ( taz ) also sees the AM as a stream of "moderate [r] forces in the AfD".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/driesang-tritt-aus-afd-aus-101.html
  2. ↑ a b Matthias Kamann : A tender plant of moderation is growing in the AfD , WeltN24, July 23, 2017.
  3. ↑ Tilman Steffen: AfD: The Last Barrier , Zeit online, July 19, 2017.
  4. ^ The AfD shows itself from two sides , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 2, 2017.
  5. ^ A b Maria Fiedler: In the AfD, resistance against Höcke's "wing" is forming , Tagesspiegel, September 9, 2017.
  6. ^ Contra Höcke-Gauland: "Alternative Middle" founded in the AfD Thuringia , thüringen24.de, September 2, 2017.
  7. ↑ Stefan Maas, Henry Bernhard : Uncertain course of the AfD , Deutschlandfunk, September 12, 2017.
  8. ↑ Severin Weiland: AfD fears for its center , Spiegel online, September 29, 2017.
  9. ↑ Dietmar Neuerer: AfD scandal about Petry: The split has begun , Handelsblatt, September 25, 2017.
  10. ↑ a b Tilman Steffen: Alternative, but different , Zeit, October 4, 2017.
  11. ↑ a b Alan Posener: "moderate" AfDists find this gesture unconstitutional , WeltN24, October 3, 2017.
  12. ↑ Sabine Am Orde: "Alternative Middle" versus "Wing" , taz, October 6, 2017.
  13. ↑ a b Pitt von Bebenburg: AfD shouldn't talk about the Wehrmacht , Frankfurter Rundschau, October 25, 2017.
  14. ↑ Open letter to the members and federal delegates of the AfD , Alternative Mitte, October 22, 2017. Retrieved on February 17, 2018.
  15. ↑ AfD sees alternative center as a permissible current , WeltN24, October 28, 2017.
  16. ↑ Brandenburg AfD members found "Alternative Mitte" , Focus, October 22, 2017.
  17. ↑ AfD members found "Alternative Middle Saxony" ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Sächsische Zeitung, November 26, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sz-online.de
  18. ↑ Civil AfD forces found “Alternative Mitte MV” , Ostsee-Zeitung, February 5, 2018.
  19. ↑ a b Pitt von Bebenburg: Hessen-AfD threatens the "alternative center" , Frankfurter Rundschau, October 23, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Alternative Mitte" would like to bring AfD on a more moderate course ( memento of the original from February 21, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , hessenschau.de, October 23, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hessenschau.de
  21. ↑ a b Konrad Litschko: Directional struggle in the AfD: attack on the “center” , taz, October 26, 2017.
  22. ↑ AfD sees Alternative Mitte as a permissible trend . Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 28, 2017, accessed on August 26, 2020 . .
  23. ^ AfD cancels the conference in Paderborn , Westfalenblatt, February 24, 2018.
  24. ^ Matthias Schwarzer: AfD cancels the meeting in Paderborn for good , Neue Westfälische, February 24, 2018.
  25. ↑ Sebastian Hesse: AfD struggles for relationship with Pegida , MDR, March 2, 2018.
  26. ↑ Outrage over Urban Pegida , Sächsische Zeitung, March 6, 2018.
  27. ↑ Thomas Block: AfD-ler Poggenburg resigns , Südwest Presse, March 9, 2018.
  28. ↑ David Gebhard: Poggenburg resigns - a right winger offside , ZDF, March 8, 2018.
  29. ↑ Ricarda Breyton, Matthias Kamann: Brandenburg's CDU is alone with advances to the AfD , WeltN24, April 13, 2018.
  30. ↑ a b Tilman Steffen: Alternative middle: Somehow away from the "Yuck factor" , Zeit online, April 23, 2018
  31. ^ "Alternative middle": Höcke case should be before arbitration tribunal , WeltN24, May 10, 2018.
  32. ↑ Philip Kuhn: Outrage over Gauland: “Perfidious AfD strategy to rewrite German history” , WeltN24, June 3, 2018.
  33. ↑ After the "bird shit" statement: Part of the AfD demands an apology from Gauland. , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 4, 2018.
  34. ↑ Alexander Gauland: Jörg Meuthen considers "bird shit" statement to be "unhappy" , Zeit, June 3, 2018.
  35. ↑ Carolin Wollschied: Dispute in the AfD: "I felt the need to apologize for Gauland" , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 5, 2018.
  36. ↑ Michael Bock: Moderate AfD wing ends work , Volksstimme, October 5, 2018.
  37. ↑ Ricarda Breyton: "Jews in the AfD" - party speaks of "historical importance" , WeltN24, October 8, 2018.