Apparently too radical – AfD wants to get rid of its own youth organization

The Young Alternative, an independent organization with only loose ties to the party leadership itself, is apparently too radical. Apart from the board, the members do not necessarily have to belong to the AfD. The JA is nationally regarded as a safe right-wing extremist effort and is supervised by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Many of the political positions are not compatible with the German Constitution. According to one assessment, there are anti-constitutional attempts.

JA leader lost parliamentary immunity
Many of the approximately 2,500 JA members have close ties to right-wing extremist groups, including the Identitarians. In May, the parliamentary identity of AfD MP Hannes Gnauck (bottom photo right), who is also chairman of the JA, was abolished. The reason would be an investigation into a disciplinary complaint from Gnauck’s time in the Bundeswehr. 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 during a raid
In early November, several suspects were arrested as part of a raid against the right-wing extremist group ‘Saxon Separatists’, including JA and AfD members. The cashier at Junge Alternative Sachsen suffered a gunshot wound during the police operation. The AfD now wants to exclude all party members involved.

In order to gain more control over their own party youth and to take away the ammunition from those parties that want to ban the Alternative for Germany, they now apparently want to get rid of the entire JA. However, the corresponding recommendation of the Federal Council of Governors must be confirmed by a two-thirds majority at the party conference in January.