Tino Chrupalla, the AfD’s party and parliamentary group leader, criticized his colleague Markus Frohnmaier for his remarks on the ongoing Middle‑East conflict. Chrupalla told the broadcasters RTL and ntv that Frohnmaier’s views could be understood, but that “we should not celebrate the attacks and the killing of many civilians”.
Frohnmaier, the AfD’s foreign‑policy spokesperson, had praised the “surgical precision and clear target orientation” of a recent U.S. airstrike. He called the strike “surgical warfare” though he questioned it when it struck an Iranian girls’ school, killing 120 people. Frohnmaier also said, “I do not celebrate rocket attacks, no matter which country they come from or who launches them. We cannot celebrate them because civilians are always killed, and we can only condemn such attacks”. He maintained that he would not describe Frohnmaier’s statements as celebratory.
Chrupalla emphasized that the AfD “stands for international law and the UN Charter. We have always warned about the disturbing images emerging from the Middle East”. He said he can understand Israel’s motives but cannot see the objectives of the country or the United States, adding that “a regime change cannot be achieved in this manner”.
Regarding Donald Trump, Chrupalla was critical. He said, “Donald Trump started as a peace president” but noted that even Trump’s own supporters would view the attacks critically. “In the end, Donald Trump will finish as a war president. If he intends that, he must explain it to his voters, especially if these attacks and this warfare prove ineffective”.
