Martin Sellner in X: Trouble in the AfD?
The co-leader of the AfD, Tino Charupella, posted an amazing video. In it he also blamed the ICE deportations for the midterm loss. He then promoted a color-blind anti-nativist message, essentially supporting the Sommer protests and inviting all people, regardless of their immigration background, into the party. In the same breath, he again distanced himself from any immigration announcement that might "split" his desired multi-ethnic coalition of voters.
The next day, in a possibly coordinated move, Maximilian Kara came forward and attacked "emigration maximization". He says that immigration to the country is unconstitutional and should be disposed of by the party. In his opinion, any mass deportation of foreigners is utopian, and the AfD will deport only about 200,000 people. And it should win the votes of the immigrants. Everything else would be dangerous radicalism in his views.
It's a pattern: Maximilian Kara and Tino Charupella are trying to conquer parallel societies of Muslim immigrants as voters, with a color-blind message of economic populism and geopolitics.
This goes against the trend. Ulrich Sigmund traveled to Saxony-Anhalt with an explicit message of national sovereignty and immigration. AfD youth are behind the idea, and more politicians in the West are opening up to the idea.
My suspicion is that the anti-immigration wing of the AfD, made up of people like Chrupalla and Krah, is getting nervous about the growing popularity of the idea and immigration rising stars like Sigmund.
Their position has always been that the AfD can "never get above 15%, then 20%, then 30%" with the message of immigration and without clearly distancing themselves from activists like me. Apparently they were wrong.
The entire strategy was based on fear mongering, and since neither a drop in the polls nor an AfD ban materialized, they are running out of arguments.