Apparently too radical

AfD wants to get rid of its own youth organization

(Bild: APA/AFP/JENS SCHLUETER)

The AfD apparently wants to get rid of its youth organization Junge Alternative. A party spokesperson confirmed media reports on Tuesday that an amendment to the party statutes is planned, which would allow the founding of a new youth organization.

The Junge Alternative, an independent organization with only loose ties to the party, is apparently too radical for the party leadership itself. Apart from the executive board, members do not necessarily have to belong to the AfD. The JA is considered a secure right-wing extremist organization nationwide and is under observation by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Many of its political positions are not compatible with the German constitution. There are anti-constitutional aspirations, according to an assessment.

JA chairman loses parliamentary immunity
Many of the approximately 2,500 JA members have close links to right-wing extremist groups - including the Identitarians. In May, the parliamentary immunity of AfD MP Hannes Gnauck (pictured below right), who is also the chairman of the JA, was lifted. The background to this is said to be investigations into a disciplinary complaint from Gnauck's time in the German Armed Forces. Gnauck was a regular soldier in the Bundeswehr from 2014 to 2021 and is classified as an "extremist" by the Bundeswehr's Military Counterintelligence Service.

AfD members arrested in raid
At the beginning of November, several suspects were arrested in the course of a raid against the far-right group "Saxon Separatists", including JA and AfD members. The treasurer of the Junge Alternative Sachsen suffered a gunshot wound in the course of the police operation. The AfD now wants to expel all party members involved.

In order to have more control over its own party youth and to take away the ammunition of those parties that are seeking to ban the Alternative for Germany, the entire JA is apparently now to be got rid of. However, the corresponding recommendation of the Federal Executive Board must be confirmed by a two-thirds majority at the party conference in January.