AfD party conference: “Too much of the focus” – MP uses opposing candidacy to settle accounts with Höcke

Klaus Stöber only has two minutes to settle scores with Björn Höcke on Saturday. “I know that I cannot win this election,” he said at the beginning of his speech at the state party conference of the Thuringian AfD in Arnstadt. “But I would like to use my speaking time to clarify a few things.” The member of the Bundestag is running this evening in the new state executive election against the Thuringian AfD leader Höcke.

“A party expulsion procedure was initiated against me because I criticized the state executive board,” says Stöber. “Because he reversed an election in two promising constituencies in the style of Angelika Merkel (sic!).” Then the 63-year-old turns directly to Höcke, who is sitting on the stage. “Dear Björn, I really value you as a person. What I accuse you of is that you purposefully surround yourself with people who have neither you, the party nor this country in mind; who simply have a political career in mind,” he says.

“What I continue to accuse you of, Björn, is that you put yourself too much in the spotlight.” Höcke grimaces. The room boos. Then Stöber says that Höcke is just the chairman of a small regional association. “Outside Thuringia, no one would know you if you didn’t make yourself the center of attention,” he says. “You deliberately incorporated provocations into your speeches in order to become known.” The boos in the hall are getting louder.

Stöber’s speaking time is almost over. “The fact that you did not run for the Bundestag is not due to your modesty, but rather the fact that Tino Chrupalla made it clear to you that you would not play a role in the parliamentary group,” says Stöber in conclusion.

The member was then asked by members whether he had ever thought self-critically about whether his behavior “in the middle of the election campaign is actually destructive of the party.” The hall cheers. “And have you ever thought about resigning from the party voluntarily?” The hall cheers even louder.

“The basis for the grievance was not me, but the state board,” says Stöber. “Liar,” someone in the hall shouts. “Are you pathetic,” someone else shouts. “Such a pathetic wretch!”

The result of the election of the first state chairman is clear. Höcke received 220 out of 240 votes, i.e. almost 92 percent. Only 14 members vote for Stöber. “Hock! Höcke! Höcke!” echoes through the hall. Most AfDers stand up from their seats and applaud.

After his angry speech, Stöber said in an interview with WELT: “Björn Höcke behaves like Julius Caesar.” The strong election results in the state elections are of no use because Höcke “remains in total opposition.” The AfD has to co-govern if it wants to change something. “Unfortunately that doesn’t work with Höcke.”

Höcke believes he is the real Prime Minister

Höcke had already given his application speech shortly before Stöber. “You all know me,” he said. “We have all been fighting a fair fight for eleven years.” After the state elections, which the AfD won, he fell into a small depression. “I thought, my God, you fought for the historically best result for the AfD with this wonderful regional association and are now left empty-handed,” said Höcke. “I then pictured these political amateurs and political actors in my mind’s eye. I know that it is just an AfD prevention coalition,” he said of the so-called blackberry coalition made up of the CDU, BSW and SPD.

At the end of his acclaimed speech, Höcke said that he knew that Mario Voigt (CDU) was not the real Prime Minister of Thuringia. “But, I say this with all humility, that I am the real Prime Minister.”

The state executive committee applied for the party exclusion proceedings against him mentioned by Stöber in October. According to WELT information, the AfD Thuringia’s state arbitration court has not yet decided on this. Before the state elections, Stöber publicly made serious allegations against the two state leaders Höcke and Stefan Möller.

Möller justified the desired party exclusion to WELT with a “destructive communication strategy in the state election campaign that was seriously damaging to the party.” By “publicly denigrating his own party’s election campaigners,” Stöber had “far exceeded the limits of election campaign sabotage.”

Dispute over the nomination of candidates in two constituencies in Thuringia

Stöber had claimed, among other things, that the state executive board had directed its own members as well as close employees and confidants to promising constituencies. In Stöber’s West Thuringia district association, however, the applicants supported by the state executive board were defeated in two constituencies. Höcke and Möller then requested a repeat election.

According to a letter from the two chairmen to the state arbitration court available to WELT, “work was carried out secretly” against the candidates supported by the state executive board. There were increasing reports of choleric behavior about one of the two candidates.

After the elected candidates successfully sued the Meiningen regional court against the repetition of the assembly meeting, the state executive board refused to sign the election proposals. This made them invalid. The AfD was unable to put forward a candidate in both constituencies due to a lack of signature. On September 1st, the CDU finally won in both constituencies. Because the AfD was clearly ahead in the second votes, it would probably have won the constituencies with direct candidates. In this case, only the top candidate Björn Höcke, who did not win his constituency, would have entered the state parliament via the state list.

At the beginning of July, Stöber publicly criticized the state executive board and spoke of a “vile manner”. At the time, Stöber accused Höcke of having “lost all traction” and claimed that Höcke had disqualified himself as both state chairman and possible prime minister. At the end of July, Stöber was again critical of WELT AM SONNTAG. He accused Höcke of having increased his “inclination towards egocentrism” significantly in recent years.

Möller and the deputy party chairman Torben Braga then sent Stöber a cease-and-desist notice. The letter available to WELT said: “A few weeks before the start of the state election campaign, you are attacking the top candidate Björn Höcke.”

The conflict escalated further: In a now-deleted Facebook post, Stöber then accused Möller of “denigrating unpleasant members with Stasi methods.” He described Höcke and Möller as a “disgrace for the party”. He also wrote: “If anyone boycotted the AfD Thuringia election campaign, it was Möller and Höcke themselves by preventing the two direct candidates for no reason.”

Political editor Frederick Schindler reports for WELT about the AfD, Islamism, anti-Semitism and justice issues. His column “Counter Speech” appears biweekly.