BERLIN (Dow Jones)–AfD party leader Jrg Meuthen resigned from the AfD on Friday and thus resigned his party chairmanship with immediate effect. Meuthen confirmed this to WDR, NDR and the ARD capital studio, as the ARD announced.
Meuthen himself spoke of a defeat in the power struggle with the formally dissolved right-wing extremist wing of the party over the alignment of the AfD and combined his exit with harsh criticism of the state of his party: “The heart of the party today beats very far to the right and it actually beats constantly .” Meuthen said that he had failed as party leader with his commitment to a different path.
In his opinion, parts of the party “are not based on the free democratic basic order,” he said. “I clearly see totalitarian echoes there.” Especially in the Corona policy, the AfD has developed something cult-like. Meuthen wants to keep his mandate as a member of the European Parliament in the right-wing populist group “Identity and Democracy”. The 60-year-old wants to continue to be politically active in the future and is already in talks. According to the information, he did not want to say who he was talking to. This will be cleared up shortly.
Meuthen had already announced in the autumn that he would no longer run for party chairmanship in the AfD. Meuthen joined the AfD in 2013 and became federal spokesman in the summer of 2015 after the departure of party founder Bernd Lucke. First he led the AfD alongside Frauke Petry, then with Alexander Gauland and finally with Tino Chrupalla.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 28, 2022 08:33 ET (13:33 GMT)