The next high-ranking politician to leave the AfD is European MP Sylvia Limmer. This criticizes the shift to the right in the party and the lack of leadership. Everything in the AfD is controlled by the “former wing boys and Putin fanboys”.
“In principle, I said goodbye to the AfD a long time ago, or rather the AfD said goodbye to me and its founding ideals,” says Simmer, explaining her departure from the party in an interview with “Spiegel”. The 58-year-old criticizes above all the party leadership, which “makes” her decisions above” would specify.
“Critics are now being sidelined,” argues Linner. The AfD as such is “leaderless”. “Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have no real power,” explains Simmer, pointing out that “former wing boys and the Putin fanboys” would work together much more closely. Simmer is alluding to the officially dissolved wing of the Thuringian state leader Björn Höcke.
But the AfD’s desire to leave NATO and to force “Dexit”, Germany’s exit from the EU, also encouraged Simmer to turn his back on the party.
With Simmer, the party loses the next figure who held a high-ranking position. From 2019 to 2022, Limmer was an assessor on the federal executive board. The MEP is one of the moderates in the ranks of the AfD and is therefore more likely to be assigned to the camp of ex-party leader Jörg Meuthen. Meuthen left the AfD two years ago.