Wolfgang Ischinger, chair of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), defended the decision to invite three AfD members of the German Bundestag to the upcoming weekend conference. He explained to the newspaper “Die Welt” that the MSC had not invited the party as a whole but rather three specialist politicians drawn from parliamentary committees. “We didn’t invite the party, we invited three specialists” he said. The choice was not made lightly, but returned the conference to an earlier practice: for many years the MSC had welcomed members from all parties, including the AfD, as attendees without speaker roles or onstage appearances.
In contrast, former MSC chair Christoph Heusgen had excluded AfD representatives in the past two years. According to Ischinger, that policy was based on the party’s conduct in the Bundestag during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyy: “The AfD’s actions were shameful and show why the party should not be given responsibility”. Still, Ischinger stressed that MSC’s philosophy has always been to invite a wide range of guests from both domestic and international circles, even when such invitations can be uncomfortable.
He further clarified that the MSC was not under pressure from the United States. U.S. Vice‑President JD Vance had criticized the previous year’s exclusion of the AfD, but Ischinger said the conference’s board deliberated carefully and opted for a minimal solution rather than a categorical ban. “I was neither contacted nor pressured by Americans” he added.
