AfD: Zoff at the federal party conference on a new foundation

At the end of a long day, a jubilation breaks out in the exhibition hall. About 64% of AfD delegates present decide to recognize the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation as a party foundation.

This is a historic milestone in the young history of the right-wing populist party. For two months, the Erika Steinbach Erasmus Foundation, former leader of the CDU and named in honor of the Chancellor of the Weimar Republic and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Gustav Stresemann Foundation, organized struggles during several months

. adopted, because the renaming of Erasmus in a Stresemann Foundation hosts the party congress, "if the legal conditions would be given". Recalling past times, the decision also states that the "ultimate political goal" of the AfD remains the abolition of affiliated foundations. But as long as the "old parties" do not give up on this instrument, the AfD should produce "the equality of arms".

"Free Food and Drink on Tax Costs"

This is a phrase that should appease critics. Because the other parties will not abolish the foundations, they know it in the AfD. "We wanted to be different from the old parties, we have aged a lot in the past five years," enthuses AfD delegate Eberhard Brett in the lobby. A Rostock delegate does not care that the foundation talks about "free food and alcoholic beverages". And Bundestag MP Fabian Jacobi speaks of a "fundamental change in the nature of the party", which justifies a member decision.

But this is rejected by the delegates. In an impbadioned debate, the arguments had been exchanged, sometimes filled with anger.

The AfD exists since 2013, and now she has arrived with her model foundation in the institution, even if the federal budget money – at least 70 million is the speech – probably only from 2022 can be claimed. The rule is that a party must sit for two legislative periods in the Bundestag in order to receive taxpayer money for a party foundation.

The Federal Republic must therefore prepare for an AfD foundation, which should disseminate the ideas of the party. Supporters such as NRW parliamentary group vice-president Helmut Seifen described the foundation as a "party logistic center", facilitating integration into society, making contact with intellectuals, providing educational materials to schools and adult education centers. The indoctrination of "the ideology of the left", that "we must break up".

Erika Steinbach, who is not a member of the AfD, had described the purpose of the foundation in her speech: "Influencing Social Depth and Widerness. Citing the cheers of the delegates, she quoted the speech of the former Estonian President, Lennart Meri, who, in 1995, in the German Bundestag, had declared that one could not trust a people to "prosecute" his intellectual contempt "24 hours a day."

Social policy will take over the AfD

The first day of the meeting was partly ferocious Debates – also in other areas. Satisfied was not only Steinbach, but also the right wing of the AfD, the head of Thuringia Björn Höcke. He has submitted a request for a federal convention in the coming year to make a directional decision on social policy. This should be the subject of the next few months at AfD.

Augsburg has once again shown how it intersects between the national-economic-liberal and the national-social wing. To this day, there is no concept of uniform retirement, many ideas circulate. The Höckes parliamentary group has recently presented its own document on pensions, in which there should be, among other things, only German nationals – an approach that the moderates do not share

Party leader Jörg Meuthen devotes himself almost exclusively on the theme of rents. The pay-as-you-go "pay-as-you-go" pension system wants to grow even bigger, so you can only create a "socialist-based solution based on the model of civil insurance," said the professor. # 39; s economy. It was necessary to "gradually release people into a form of self-determination of old age", which must be "not necessarily financed by savings". Meuthens' speech – he received rather sparse applause – resembled a hidden challenge to Höcke's wing, who wants to remain in the pension policy in the previous system

Höcke wants to make money. AfD the strongest force in the East. sees itself as a driver in the socio-political issue. The AfD as "party of social peace" must be brought "more consciously", in the coming year there are three "strategic" state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia, he told Augsburg. The AfD must combine "identity and solidarity" and then become "People's Party, the only one in Germany". Höcke, who has become clear in Augsburg, is pursuing a plan. The goal for 2019 was to be "the strongest party in the East". And beyond that, it must be the goal to "set up the first blue prime minister of the Federal Republic of Germany," he said in reference to party color.

On the other hand, the leader of the party, Alexander Gauland, in his opening speech, had resorted to deliberate provocation, a means with which the AfD is constantly working in the Bundestag. He compared the crisis in the Union with the end of the GDR, Chancellor Angela Merkel with the state and party leader SED Erich Honecker, who was dismissed in 1989.

Gauland also Served the delegates with a Hitlerian comparison – without Hitler's mouth but everyone in the room knew who he meant. Germany is currently in disagreement with the Russians on Putin, with the Americans on Trump, with the British on the Brexit, relations with the Poles, Hungary, Italy and even Austria are miserable. "Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, the last German head of government, who staged such an enemy constellation …" Gauland then paused in the art, followed by laughter and applause from delegates. Finally, Gauland ended the pbadage with a seemingly ironic remark that he had "not compared".