Youth organizations of parties usually see themselves as a corrective force that warns the elderly against lazy compromises. The Jusos want to move the SPD to the left, the Green Youth wants the same with the Green leadership. Conversely, the Junge Union often takes a more conservative course than the CDU. Things are a little more complicated with the AfD youth, Generation Germany.
Undoubtedly, it gathers many radical members. There is no sign of moderation. A member of the Federal Executive Board just had to be elected at the annual meeting; The previous incumbent Kevin Dorow was banned from holding office for two years because of using a slogan close to the Nazis. A party expulsion process failed due to resistance from the party youth. It was fitting that Dorow's successor expressly thanked him on stage, whereupon Dorow expressly thanked him back for his solidarity.
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There was also talk of “millions of remigration” on stage. The vulgar speech by the AfD state chairman of Saxony-Anhalt, who described the “Father State” as a “lazy ass stinking of dope” and the German language as “a bloated, intersectional tart,” was celebrated with thunderous applause by the AfD youth. But there is something else going on.
Is it possible to professionalize without adapting to the other parties?
Because the fronts in the AfD are not just between extremist and right-wing conservative. They also run the line between impulsive and disciplined, clumsy and sophisticated.
It is precisely these categories that are at stake when it comes to the professionalization of the party, which is particularly important to chairwoman Alice Weidel. Becoming more professional is not an end in itself - the party should gain even more power in this way. The course is fundamentally not controversial; It is clear to most people in the party that it is useful to appear as an electable party to as many Germans as possible. Which means: presenting yourself as a force of the middle rather than as extremists from the right-wing fringe. This includes putting forward a down-to-earth top candidate like Ulrich Siegmund instead of the scandal-ridden provocateur Maximilian Krah, as was the case in the EU elections a few years ago.
However, some see a danger in changing too much. They believe that professionalization should not mean adapting to the established parties. And this question currently concerns the German generation even more than the parent party.
On the one hand, she must be particularly interested in professionalization; Its predecessor organization, the firmly right-wing extremist Junge Alternative, was dissolved in order to avoid a ban. The new party youth, in which many old protagonists are active, want to avoid this fate. While the Junge Alternative's appearance was rather aggressive and activist, the federal executive board of Generation Germany is now trying to be close to the AfD - especially its chairman, Jean-Pascal Hohm. He also sits on the AfD federal executive board.
EU-friendly proposal withdrawn
On the other hand, young people want to do what young people generally do: feel a lot, rebel against rules, teach older people to fear. This means that the German generation has to choose between two paths that, although they occasionally cross each other, lead in different directions. Does it want to polarize more or less?
The debate about this broke out openly at the annual meeting over the weekend. It was sparked by the key motion that the federal executive committee of the party youth had previously unanimously approved and now wanted to put to the vote - assuming that its own people would follow. The application outlined a united Europe that would fight together against illegal migration. People are not fundamentally opposed to the euro, and the euro has strengthened the internal market. That sounded much more positive than it sounds in the AfD's basic program. It says that the “Euro experiment” should be ended in an orderly manner.
The idea behind the main motion is that the other right-wing parties in Europe are also on a pro-European course. The leadership of Generation Germany wants to network with them even more intensively than before; Several foreign representatives gave greetings at the annual meeting in Magdeburg. “Europe-wide remigration” was an acclaimed demand.
But concessions – such as accepting the euro – go too far for many people. The AfD's federal leadership was accordingly surprised by the youth initiative. Weidel had just confirmed in a summer interview that the AfD wanted to leave the euro and Schengen. At the beginning of 2025, she still argued that it was “much too late” to exit the euro. But the AfD won't win any prizes with such statements. If she appears pragmatic, a large part of the party will see this as resignation. And the party lives from the narrative that everything could be different with it.
At the AfD youth meeting there was resistance to the main proposal. Critics demanded changes and things got heated. In the end, the board had to withdraw its proposal so as not to risk it failing in the vote. What was professional compared to previous years was that there was no escalation or even cancellation of the event. But a clear course was not found either.
