AfD strategy paper: How the AfD wants to destroy the CDU

CDU bullying is currently the favorite pastime of the extreme right AfD. Party leader Tino Chrupalla proved this again when he said spitefully in the Bundestag on Tuesday in view of the black-red coalition's pension plans: "The Chancellor is now 70 himself and actually shows impressively: not everyone is suitable for work in every job." The Chancellor should now retire. The parliamentary managing director Bernd Baumann had already presented on Tuesday morning with his usual fury and insulted the Union as a “hill of chickens” that would now be politically crushed, as was the case in the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania between red-red-green and the AfD.

The weaker the CDU, the more broadly the right-wing extremists appear. Their declared goal is the destruction of the Christian Democrats. In the long term, the AfD wants to take over the Union's position in the party spectrum and thus divide society even further. Until then, their strategy is to plunge the Christian Democrats into substantive contradictions with an anti-left culture war and to grind them between coalition constraints and their own election promises - which is working surprisingly well so far, also because of the Union's lack of concept in dealing with the AfD. Copying AfD content was obviously unsuccessful.

The AfD is now even preparing for a minority government from the Union - in the event that the black-red coalition breaks up. The taz has a corresponding discussion paper from the AfD parliamentary group executive committee, which was drawn up by deputy parliamentary group leader Sebastian Münzenmaier.

In it, the AfD mastermind formulates three different options for dealing with a potential CDU minority government at the federal level - in the event that the black-red federal government breaks up. It doesn't look like that at the moment, but in order to increase the pressure, this paper first appeared in the Bild newspaper.

Variant one: “No cooperation at all”, i.e. “consistent blockade of the government and pressure for new elections”. However, this comes with the risk of claiming to agree with everyone “if the matter is right.” It also provides a target for attack because the AfD then shirks responsibility.

Second option: “Selective cooperation until the election”, but demand for new elections. With legislative initiatives and motions that correspond to the AfD program, the pressure on the Union can be increased and “roll-call votes on core issues” can be forced. “Risk: Voters must not be given the impression that they are breaking their word or that they are getting a majority cheaply.”

Third variant: “Willingness for position-dependent cooperation” with a simultaneous “application offensive”, especially where there are overlaps with the Union program. However, the AfD believes that “written toleration work” is essential.

The author Münzenmaier, whose influential network extends from Höcke to Weidel, obviously prefers the latter two options. However, conditions must apply to both variants: AfD support does not come for free. "We are not just a stirrup holder. Cooperation requires equal treatment (vice president, committee chairs, SPD meeting room, participation in a consultation mechanism)." Another condition for selective cooperation with a minority government of the Union is the “Left is over” rule, which is based on a Merz quote from the election campaign.

If the Union were to actually become dependent on the AfD, it would bring it to the brink. The majority of Union voters do not want to work with the right-wing extremists. In fact, in such a scenario, the CDU would be more likely to hold the stirrups for the AfD and make itself superfluous.

Recent history already shows this - the breaking of the taboo in 2025 before the last federal election, when the then opposition leader Merz pushed through a motion on migration together with the AfD. This gave the extreme right a boost and cost Merz votes. It also revived the previously moribund Left Party. And there were nationwide demonstrations against the Union.

The AfD strategy paper is essentially a hand-rubbing in writing if the black-red coalition actually breaks up: Just in case, the AfD wants to prepare an “application offensive” with a “list of legal initiatives”. In the phase of a transitional government up to new elections, we can “sharpen our profile, force the Union to confess or expose it,” said Münzenmaier.

The paper once again makes fundamentally clear the extreme right-wing party's hostility to a political system that relies on compromises: "An AfD faction will not support a minority government in the long term if it makes small changes in individual policy areas (e.g. migration), but nothing changes in the overall political course because of the cooperation with the SPD, the Greens and the Left in other areas (e.g. social policy, the 'fight against the right')," said Münzenmaier, who was found in 2017 for aiding and abetting violence in one Hooligan attack was convicted.

CSU regional group leader Alexander Hoffmann is cool when asked by taz: “The AfD has already submitted every single one of these applications and received no approval from the Union.” The party is playing its games and wants people to talk about them. Otherwise, it was important to Hoffmann to emphasize that the danger comes from the right and the left.