The Association of Family Businesses’ recent reversal of its policy regarding the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been met with cautious optimism from both the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), underscoring a growing unease within German business circles regarding the far-right party’s growing influence.
Dennis Radtke, Chairman of the CDU’s Worker’s Forum, characterized the shift as likely driven by “the threat of membership and revenue losses” impacting family-run businesses. He emphasized the need for scrutiny, adding, “It remains for the member companies to assess the credibility of this course correction” highlighting the potentially precarious nature of the association’s change in direction. Radtke welcomed the public denouncement of the previous policy as “a positive development.
Thuringia’s Interior Minister, Georg Maier (SPD), lauded the reversal as “an encouraging sign” and took the opportunity to condemn the association’s earlier approach. Maier sharply criticized previous leadership’s actions, stating it “constituted a grave error to align with the AfD and thereby contribute to the normalization of a volkisch-nationalist party”. He argued that “democracy and openness are essential success factors for the German economy” and that these values must be actively defended.
Maier’s critique extended beyond the Family Businesses Association, targeting the broader business community. He expressed hope that chambers of industry and commerce (IHKs) would follow suit and adopt unequivocally clear stances against the AfD. He specifically pointed to the IHKs in Thuringia, where, he claimed, they are often obscuring their positions behind the guise of political neutrality, avoiding a decisive distancing from the far-right party. He singled out the Suhl Chamber of Industry and Commerce for supposedly demonstrating a willingness to engage with the AfD despite the party’s anti-euro stance, which he argued would inflict “severe damage” to Thuringia’s export-oriented SMEs.
The Family Businesses Association’s earlier invitation of AfD representatives to a parliamentary evening, intended to demonstrate the party’s detrimental economic policies, backfired spectacularly, creating the impression that the association was lending support to the party. The recent statement acknowledged this misstep, stating, “We recognize that this invitation proved to be an error and did not lead to what we intended”. The association pledged to pursue alternative methods of engagement to critically address the AfD while reaffirming its core values, signaling a recognition that previous strategies were counterproductive.
