Former AfD leader Jörg Meuthen has offered a critique of his past, stating, “I formed alliances that were not sensible,” referring to his collaboration with the far-right faction known as the ‘Flügel’ led by Björn Höcke, in comments made to “Politico”. He admitted that he initially dismissed the movement, viewing it as so outlandish that he thought he could simply overlook it; “That was my big mistake.”
Regarding his long-running power struggle with former party chief Frauke Petry, Meuthen suggested that if the duo of Petry and Meuthen had functioned well together, the entire direction of the party would have been different. He noted that Frauke Petry was similarly inclined toward liberal thinking. “If that had harmonized, the whole trajectory would have been different. But unfortunately, it didn’t,” he stated.
Meuthen also addressed the party’s political communication approach, which originated from Götz Kubitschek’s think tank, the Institute for Political State. He argued that the party’s narrative-or “spin”-came fundamentally from Schnellroda. Noting that Kubitschek is often referred to as the party’s “spin doctor,” Meuthen emphasized that the party’s spin was clearly directed toward a volkish-nationalist ideology, which was not aligned with his own principles.
Shifting focus to the internal struggles within the AfD chapter in North Rhine-Westphalia, Meuthen described the state party leader, Martin Vincentz, as a “reasonable man,” while viewing Bundestag member Matthias Helferich as an “unmistakable far-right extremist.” He explained that his inability to push through the measure to expel Helferich from the party was the cause of his departure from the AfD. Meuthen added, “Weidel supports Helferich with everything,” warning that “you don’t need to know more to know what compromises are being made and in what direction things are heading.” For Vincentz’s future, Meuthen offered a bleak prognosis: “After the selection of the state legislative list, they will carve him out, and then it will be over.”
