In the AfD, other leading members are increasing the pressure on party leader Tino Chrupalla after the losses in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia. Board member Joana Cotar spoke out on Monday against Chrupalla running for the post again next month. “The success story of the AfD ended with Tino Chrupalla. It neither reflects the entire party nor convinces the voters. That’s why he can’t run again as federal spokesman,” explained Cotar. The member of the Bundestag called for “fresh minds at the head of the party”.

The AfD wants to elect a new board at a party conference in mid-June. In the election in North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday, she only just passed the five percent hurdle with 5.4 percent (-2.0).

Federal executive board member Alexander Wolf was also critical of Chrupalla’s position on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “We are increasingly perceived as outsiders. “Creating peace without weapons” is a Church Day slogan, not the position of the AfD. This course by Tino Chrupalla is a mistake that almost cost the AfD another parliamentary group.”

Chrupalla rejected sole responsibility for losses in state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia and other federal states. Elections are won and lost together, he said in Berlin. He will of course run for the new federal executive board. The current federal board is “unfortunately only concerned with personal animosity”, in the party there is “cacophony”, he said.

Should he be re-elected as party leader, he would demand discipline from his party. For him, this means that the federal executive board members “align themselves with the official positions of the AfD, and if they have a different opinion, keep it to themselves,” said Chrupalla.

For his part, Chrupalla criticized the polyphony at the top of the party and called for more unity towards the outside world. “It’s like camping in the old days. (…) People always complained that it was wet in the tent. And those were the ones who also peed in the tent. And that has to stop.”

In terms of foreign policy, he is sticking to his policy of openness to dialogue with Russia, said the AfD boss. He wanted to position his party as “the only peace party in Germany,” he said. “It’s about World War III, which is just around the corner,” Chrupalla warned.