According to a reply from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to Greens MP Marlene Schönberger, the new AfD youth organisation, called “Generation Deutschland”, shows no moderation compared with the former Junior Alternative (JA). The ministry says there is a high degree of personnel continuity with the JA, especially among the national board officials, and it argues that the new organisation displays content‑ideological continuity.
The ministry cites speeches made at the founding assembly in Giessen in November as evidence. The statements presented there were deemed “actual indications of attempts against the liberal democratic basic order” i.e. unconstitutional. They express an ethnically based conception of the nation and contain hints that could lead to demands for legal discrimination against German citizens with a migration background.
Further concerns arise from known connections between members of the new youth group and other extremist organisations, as well as contacts with online activists relevant to constitutional protection authorities. Several members of the new national board are or have been employed by AfD Members of the Bundestag. Since, by its new statutes, Generation Deutschland is a legally dependent part of the AfD, the parent party is obliged to take responsibility, and the federal government holds this position.
On the other hand, Schönberger – who sits on the Bundestag’s Interior Committee – demands that the government finally acknowledge what civil society has already known. She calls the relaunch of the AfD youth organisation a “far‑right label‑swindle” and insists the government must act. She urges it, together with the states, to take measures against the AfD’s overt radicalisation, ranging from weapons and civil‑service legislation to potentially initiating a ban procedure.
This restructuring of the AfD’s youth arm last year was intended to make the organisation easier to manage and better protect it from state measures.
