A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia.
The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia.
Photo: EPA
The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it won in the February elections which made it Germany’s second-strongest party.
The more than decade-old party’s electoral stronghold is the ex-communist east, where many people hold more favorable views of Russia despite high tensions with NATO over the Ukraine war.
However, the AfD has also been seeking a more polished image, hoping to expand its influence in western Germany. It wants to maintain warm ties with US President Donald Trump, whose team has strongly backed the party, at a time when he has distanced himself from Putin over Moscow’s refusal to negotiate peace in Ukraine.
The Weidel-Chrupalla rift erupted on Tuesday when Weidel denounced a planned trip by several AfD lawmakers to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Weidel also banned any meeting with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, known for his strong anti-Western rhetoric and nuclear threats.
Weidel in September said she presumed Russia was testing “NATO air defenses” with its drone and fighter jet flights, and urged Putin “to de-escalate.”
Chrupalla was quick to double down on a Moscow-friendly stance, defending Putin.
“He hasn’t done anything to me,” Chrupalla said. “I don’t currently see any danger to Germany from Russia.”
There was no proof that multiple drones sighted in Germany were Russian, he said, adding that neighbor and NATO ally Poland “could also be a danger to us.”
“We must not be warmongers in this country, but finally become peacemakers,” Chrupalla said.
The stark contrast in the AfD’s leadership reflected tensions within the party’s voter base.
More than 44 percent of AfD supporters fear that “Russia could launch a military attack on Germany in the near future,” while 52 percent held the opposite view, an Insa poll showed.
The AfD has since last month faced accusations of using parliamentary questions to collect sensitive details on critical infrastructure, security and military matters.
AfD rejected the accusations, but did not offer justifications for the enquiries.
Insa institute chief Hermann Binkert said a strongly pro-Kremlin stance “could harm the AfD” at home and deepen rifts with other European nationalist parties, which are more inspired by Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement than by Putin’s war.
German lawmaker Marc Henrichmann said Weidel “fears that statements like Chrupalla’s will damage the party’s public image, break the support of MAGA hardliners in the US, and thus destroy her chances of electoral success.”
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