AfD party conference - Weidel and Chrupalla re-elected as AfD leader duo
Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel remain heads of the AfD. The party congress in Essen confirmed both for the next two years with great restraint in office. There were no counter-candidates. Weidel and Chrupalla reciprocally endorsed each other. Previously, the delegates had decided with a clear majority that the party should continue to be led by a co-chairmanship. A single chairman was also possible according to the statutes.
Chrupalla "overwhelms"
Chrupalla received 82.72% of the votes and thus a significantly better result than at the last party congress in Riesa two years ago. At that time, the 49-year-old had secured 53.4% of the votes. "I'm really a piece further than I was overwhelmed", Chrupalla said after his election. 426 of the 531 cast votes were "yes" votes, 89 delegates voted "no", 16 abstained.
The master craftsman from Saxony has been at the helm of the AfD since November 2019. Initially, he was co-chairman alongside Jörg Meuthen, who later left the AfD because he found it too radical. Since June 2022, he forms the leadership duo with Alice Weidel. He had promised two years ago in his application speech to make the AfD stronger than ever with the new federal executive committee: "I have kept my word". The party will change the country and put it back on its feet.
Weidel's result was slightly weaker in the following: She received 79.77% of the votes, in Riesa two years ago it was 67.3%. 418 of the 537 votes were "yes" votes, 106 delegates voted "no", 13 abstained.
In her opening speech to the party congress, Weidel used a football metaphor and spoke of a "trainer duo" in party leadership. The traffic light government criticized her sharply: "Dear government, clear the way for new elections!"
In her application speech, she later said that the so-called walls against the AfD were not necessary. It mattered anyway: "It's already burning brightly in our homeland."
Apart from the new composition of the AfD executive committee, there are still issues to be addressed at the party congress regarding the orientation of the party in European and foreign policy.
- At the AfD party conference in Essen, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel were re-elected as co-chairs of the party with significant margin, outperforming their results from the last conference held in Riesa two years ago.
- During the AfD party conference in Germany, Tino Chrupalla, the master craftsman from Saxony, delivered a speech where he claimed to have fulfilled his promise of making the party stronger than ever since taking over leadership in 2019.
- Alice Weidel, also a co-chair of the AfD, maintained a slightly weaker result during the party conference compared to her performance in Riesa two years ago. However, she emphasized in her application speech that the so-called walls against the AfD were not necessary.
- At the Party conference in Essen, despite the re-election of Chrupalla and Weidel as co-chairs, discussion about the AfD's orientation in European and foreign policy was still a point of contention among party delegates.
