A few days after the European elections, the AfD is discussing at all levels the decision of the new European delegation not to accept the top candidate Maximilian Krah and to elect René Aust from Thuringia as head of the delegation. Now a statement by the Thuringian AfD state chairmen Björn Höcke and Stefan Möller is causing a stir in the party.
In the post, Höcke and Möller express their solidarity with Aust and distance themselves from Krah. The statement reads: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the deeply defamatory campaign initiated by a supporter of Maximilian Krah against our Thuringian party friend and colleague René Aust. We find it particularly disappointing that the accusation of ‘treason’ made against René Aust is supported by Maximilian Krah’s silence on the machinations of his supporter.”
This refers to Krah’s former social media advisor Erik Ahrens, an activist with the Young Alternative. After Krah was not included in the delegation, Ahrens accused Aust of “treason” and called Aust a “very weak man”, “soft and toothless” and “mother’s favorite”. Torben Braga, parliamentary manager of the Thuringian AfD parliamentary group, then publicly stated that he had rarely read anything so “indecent” and “despicable” (sic).
Numerous accounts from the radical front of the far-right party, however, joined the campaign for Krah. They accused Aust, among other things, of currying favor with Marine Le Pen’s French party Rassemblement National in order to be accepted back into the European Identity and Democracy faction.
Höcke and Möller now reject this. “Aust represents a decidedly German standpoint in Brussels and takes a German geostrategic position. He does not negotiate as a supplicant with the delegations of other nations,” they say in their statement. “We also remind Maximilian Krah that his Saxon regional association, like ours, is facing a crucial election. We are also disappointed that three days after the start of the campaign, the federal leadership did not take the opportunity to contradict the accusation of ‘treason.'”
Before the list was drawn up in summer 2023, Höcke had supported Krah’s candidacy, according to WELT information, and had also spoken up for Krah to the party leadership. Höcke rejected a counter-proposal to put Aust first on the list instead. Aust himself had declared on Wednesday morning that he wanted to comment on the debate about him. In the evening, he posted that he had been asked “not to take part in the public spectacle”.
According to WELT information, the newly elected MPs justified their non-admission of Krah with his behavior during the last legislative period. In an internal meeting on Monday, several colleagues accused him of lacking the ability to work in a team, reliability and predictability.
