AfD federal leadership demands the NRW state party conference be aborted and the state list reconstituted

Background: Power struggle in the largest state association

When list place 22 was called, according to information from the federal executive board, nearly one hundred applicants from the so-called patriotic camp stepped forward. Each of them was entitled to up to eight minutes of speaking time, so that the congress far exceeded its planned time frame. The sheer mass of candidacies meant that place 22 could no longer be conclusively elected on Sunday. By that point, 21 list positions had been allocated, which, according to current polling, are considered safe mandates in the Düsseldorf state parliament.

In the letter, which was first documented by Welt and was also available to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Weidel and Chrupalla cite consistent accounts according to which voting-eligible delegates had been threatened or placed under considerable pressure. There are "erhebliche Anhaltspunkte dafür, dass bei der bisherigen Kandidatenaufstellung Wahlgrundsätze verletzt wurden", the letter states verbatim. A mere condemnation of such proceedings and a reference to state investigations would not be sufficient to avert the risk of the state list being rejected.

Allegation of violations of electoral law

The federal leadership points to the Bremen precedent from 2023. At that time, the AfD was excluded from the state election there because two competing state executive boards had each submitted their own candidate lists. In order to prevent a repetition of this scenario, the NRW list is to be "rechtlich einwandfrei aufgestellt", as the letter states. The federal executive board calls on the state executive board to "unmittelbar nach der Fortsetzung der Versammlung darauf hinzuwirken, dass diese wegen der existierenden Risiken abgebrochen wird".

The Bremen precedent

NRW state chief Martin Vincentz responded with a counter-letter to the federal leadership. In it, he accused Weidel of failing to clearly distance herself from "undemokratischen, Antifa-ähnlichen Auswüchsen". Vincentz wrote verbatim: "Wir sind darüber hinaus fassungslos, dass eine Bundessprecherin sich nicht klar von derartigen undemokratischen, Antifa-ähnlichen Auswüchsen distanziert". Prior to this, opponents of Vincentz had blocked the party conference on Sunday and announced further blockades for the planned continuation on Friday. Vincentz appeared unimpressed by this.

Counter-reaction from the state executive board

On Thursday evening, the federal executive board had deliberated on the dispute in a crisis meeting. In doing so, supporters of Weidel apparently had a clear majority over co-chair Chrupalla, who is counted as belonging to the Vincentz camp. Sources from the federal executive board spoke internally of a solo run, but said unofficially that an abort would not happen anyway. Legally, the federal executive board cannot stop the assembly on its own anyway.

According to information from the federal executive board, the action against the previous course of the list drawing-up is suspected of having been coordinated by AfD federal vice-chair Sven Tritschler, who is said to have set up a chat group specifically for this purpose. Several affected delegates had the alleged threats recorded in the minutes of the meeting on Sunday, but a substantive review of the allegations is still pending.

Open questions ahead of the continuation on Friday

It is expected that while a vote on an abort will indeed be held on Friday, it will not achieve a majority and the elections will be continued. The AfD plans to allocate a total of 80 list places across several party conferences by mid-September. In next year's state election, the party expects, according to current polling, to win at least 30 mandates in the Düsseldorf state parliament.

Despite the stalled situation, the federal leadership is insisting on a restart of the procedure. "Die Bundesspitze fordert nun einen Neustart des Verfahrens", the letter states. Whether a new nominating assembly will actually take place now depends on the NRW state executive board and on the outcome of the continuation of the party conference scheduled for Friday in Marl.