AfD puts General Secretary on the back burner
The debate was anticipated with tension, but in the end it only lasted ten minutes: The AfD has not yet decided in Essen whether they will give themselves a Secretary-General starting from 2025. This is a temporary defeat for the Münzenmaier-Connection.
By 3:00 PM, the tension had completely dissipated. At the AfD party conference in Essen, a proposal caused a stir, which proposed the creation of the position of a Secretary-General. The goal was clear: Only one person at the helm of the party, in addition to a Secretary-General. It seemed like a challenge to AfD leader Tino Chrupalla.
The power struggle had already broken out on Saturday: Chrupalla was confirmed in office with better results than his co-leader Alice Weidel. She was pleased with ntv that he even had six more votes than she did herself.
The position of the Secretary-General was still to be discussed on Sunday. This project is part of the professionalization of the AfD, which above all drives Weidel. The French Rassemblement of Marine Le Pen and especially the Austrian FPO serve as role models, as they are much more successful in their countries than the AfD in Germany.
The proposal to create a Secretary-General was presented by the Rhineland-Palatinate AfD politician Damian Lohr, who belongs to the so-called Münzenmaier-Connection; its namesake, Sebastian Münzenmaier, is the deputy leader of the AfD parliamentary group, and his network also aims to professionalize the AfD without giving up radical positions.
A Secretary-General could be "the shield of the entire party," Lohr said at the conference. This is also the case with the FPO. In addition, a Secretary-General could free up the chairman's back and be "another protective barrier," with him one could "attack the opponent even more forcefully." So far, the AfD only has a federal managing director.
However, the Secretary-General is not to be given until 2025. And in another point, the proponents of the project weakened their plan: The Secretary-General should then also be for two party chairs, not just, as originally planned, for the case of a one-person leadership. The background of a possible power struggle between Weidel and Chrupalla thus fell away definitively. Both had already signaled their support for the project in advance.
However, even this watered-down version was not passed in Essen: With a narrow majority of 214 to 206 votes, the proposal was referred to the constitutional committee after a ten-minute debate. Facing a longer list of still to be discussed constitutional questions, it seemed that more delegates did not want to risk not making it home punctually today.
- The Rhineland-Palatinate FPÖ politician Damian Lohr, aligned with the Münzenmaier-Connection, proposed the creation of a Secretary-General position, citing the FPO in Austria as a successful example.
- Despite Tino Chrupalla's opposition, the power struggle over the Secretary-General position between him and Alice Weidel took a turn when the proposal was presented during the AfD party conference in Essen (NRW).
- The FPÖ, a Austrian political party, serves as a role model for the AfD's professionalization efforts, with a Secretary-General position that has prevented power struggles and allowed for a more forceful opposition approach.
