It leads the polls, yet no one wants to govern with it. AfD's Erfurt congress was blocked by 31,000 demonstrators

Germany's far-right AfD once again elected Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla to lead the party at its congress in Erfurt, Thuringia, on Saturday, but according to Tagesspiegel, the delegates' secret ballot revealed that power within the party is shifting toward Weidel — while her support rose to 81.31 percent, Chrupalla's fell to 70.05 percent from almost 83 percent two years ago. Tagesspiegel ↗ According to police, the congress was accompanied by more than 31,000 protesters and a court dispute over where demonstrators were allowed to stand — a local court partially lifted the assembly ban overnight into Saturday, while the higher administrative court reinstated it on the access roads during the day. Wirtschaftswoche ↗ According to the latest ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll, AfD is leading with 27 percent ahead of the CDU/CSU (22%), and state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern await it this autumn, meaning the internal power shift is more than just a personnel curiosity. Infratest dimap ↗

A party that leads the polls yet remains without allies

For the Slovak reader, context that German media consider self-evident needs to be added. Twelve years after its founding, the AfD is for the first time the strongest party in nationwide polls, which is unprecedented for a party to the right of the Christian Democrats in postwar Germany. Nevertheless, it remains politically isolated — all established parties, from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU/CSU to the Social Democrats, refuse to govern with it. Germans call this barrier the "Brandmauer," or firewall, so leading the polls does not yet mean governing for the AfD. ZDF ↗

At the same time, a dispute looms over the party's relationship to the constitution. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified it last year among "confirmed right-wing extremist" endeavors, but the administrative court in Cologne temporarily suspended this classification in February, and the main proceedings are still ongoing. At the level of several federal states — including Thuringia, where Höcke also has his base — the classification remains in effect. Correctiv ↗ The party's platform has a direct bearing on Slovakia: in Erfurt, Weidel again called for an end to sanctions against Russia and for cheap Russian gas via a restored Nord Stream pipeline, which she called "the secret of the success of the Made in Germany brand." At the same time, the AfD is pushing to weaken the powers of the European Union. ZDF ↗

Numbers that revealed more than the leadership itself

Around 600 delegates came to the hall in Erfurt, who were expected merely to confirm the already agreed leadership — instead, the secret ballot revealed the precise balance of power. Chrupalla was backed by 393 delegates, 168 voted against him and 15 abstained, giving him 70.05 percent. Weidel was backed by 461 delegates, 106 voted against her and 13 abstained, giving her 81.31 percent. Tagesspiegel ↗ At the previous congress in Essen in 2024, it was the other way around — Chrupalla then received almost 83 percent, Weidel around 80. The German press is therefore writing of a "setback" for Chrupalla and a strengthening of Weidel, who is also succeeding in pushing her own people into other leading positions in the party, which weakens his position even though he retained his post. Tagesspiegel ↗

Chrupalla rejected such a reading from the podium and spoke of a party "more united than ever before," while Weidel had prepared a clear claim to leading the country in her speech: according to her, the AfD "is the new people's party in Germany," and its opponents "will not break it." Heute.at ↗ The party also reports membership growth to 75,000, up from around 50,000 at the end of 2024.

Tens of thousands in the streets and a court that argued throughout the day

Outside the hall, a parallel story was unfolding. Police counted more than 31,000 demonstrators, while the organizing coalitions "Zusammenstehen" and "Widersetzen" put the number as high as 50,000. Several thousand activists blocked the A71 motorway near Erfurt for a few hours to complicate delegates' journey to the venue — they dissolved the blockade themselves at noon, and traffic resumed in the afternoon. Thousands of police officers from nearly all federal states were deployed to the city, along with water cannons and mounted police; 48 criminal offenses and 11 misdemeanors were recorded, including injuries to two journalists from thrown bottles. Thuringia's interior minister, Georg Maier, described the proceedings as "colorful, loud" and "predominantly peaceful." Wirtschaftswoche ↗

The legal dispute over the scope and location of the protests dragged on until the last moment. The administrative court in Weimar lifted the blanket assembly ban around the hall overnight into Saturday, reasoning that it also affected peaceful gatherings and that a police state of emergency had not been demonstrated, but Thuringia's higher administrative court partially reversed the decision during the day and reinstated the ban on the access roads to the hall. Wirtschaftswoche ↗

Höcke's test and the question of how far the AfD can go

Tension within the party was not limited to the duel between the two chairs. Thuringia's state leader Björn Höcke, previously convicted by a court in a final ruling for using a banned Nazi slogan, submitted his own motion at the congress — not consulted with the leadership in advance — to ease the so-called list of incompatibility, i.e., the rules that forbid AfD members from simultaneous membership in even more radical organizations, such as the Identitarian Movement. Tagesspiegel ↗ Weidel called his objection legitimate and promised to review the list within a year, which persuaded Höcke and his co-signatories to withdraw the motion before the party would have had to argue in front of the cameras about the limits of its own radicalism.

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