EU delegation of German far-right faces revolt before European Elections

In an unprecedented move, outgoing members in the European Parliament of Germany’s far-right AfD have elected a new delegation chair, defying a direct request by the party leadership not to go through with it.

The AfD delegation to the European Parliament scheduled a meeting for Thursday at short notice to elect a new delegation leader, while one-third of the nine MEPs were absent. Even the party leadership was surprised by the move and only learned about it shortly before the meeting took place, a letter by AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, seen by Euractiv, revealed.

A day ahead of the meeting, the two party leaders pleaded not to vote on a new delegation head in order not to jeopardise internal stability in light of the upcoming EU election campaign. They strongly advised against holding the vote, fearing it “will not only cause unrest within the delegation but also concerning our European partner parties within the ID party.”

However, their pleas were to no avail, as Christine Anderson was elected as the new head of the German far-right AfD in the European Parliament with only three votes in favour.

In addition to her own vote, Anderson attracted two more supporters, neither of whom is running for a seat again and will thus leave the European Parliament following the election. Two of the attending members opposed her, one remained neutral, while the rest of the delegation members did not show up for the vote.

EU lead candidate of the German far-right party, Maximilian Krah, attended a local party conference and could not attend.

Recently, the party had difficulties coordinating their party lines with other members of their European parliamentary group, the ID, which became particularly apparent when the leadership figure of their French partner, Marine Le Pen, openly questioned the AfD’s membership within the shared group.

For Weidel and Chrupalla, it is “incomprehensible why it is necessary to elect an Alternative for Germany delegation leader for the fourth time just a few weeks before the end of this legislative period in the European Parliament,” the letter reads.

The new delegation chair, Christine Anderson, will hold the seat for around ten weeks until the European Elections will reshuffle the Parliament.

This was the fourth time in five years that the German far-right party elected a new delegation chair at the EU level.

In recent years, the party has been going through internal changes, leading to two out of eleven EU members leaving the party. Only four out of the 20 first spots on the list for the upcoming elections are current members of the parliament. In addition, ID vice-chair Gunnar Beck has been relegated to place 18, indicating the change of the party’s composition and convictions compared to 2019. (Kjeld Neubert | Euractiv.de)

(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de – Edited by Oliver Noyan)