Does Severe Infight Prevent Political Success? the Case of the Alternative for Germany

Since early 2013 a new party rocks the political system in Germany. The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has successfully campaigned in several elections and will also send some 60 of its candidates in the Bundestag after national elections in September 2017. From the very beginning there was heavy infighting in the party which resulted in the replacement of the party’s founder Bernd Lucke in mid-2015, but also undermined the popular position of long-term party speaker Frauke Petry often labelled ‘the face of the AfD’. While the many infights accompanied the whole of the party’s history they did not really impair election results of the party.

The paper presents a brief history of the AfD in order to discuss the role and function of infights for the development of the party. It seeks to answer if and under what conditions infights have positive or negative impact on the party. Impact here is set relevant not only in regard to successful election campaigns but also considering issues such as homogeneity of the party or the situation that a party presenting different positions might be able to address different audiences at the same time. On the other hand, there are situations in which infight carries the danger of leading to a party split or the destruction of the party. These issues are especially important due to the fact that after the national election in autumn 2017 the AfD fraction in the national parliament will become the new power centre of the AfD.