In their own words, the party leadership of the AfD wants to use all means to combat surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “We won’t let ourselves be destroyed as an alternative,” said party leader Tino Chrupalla on Saturday in Stuttgart at the state party conference of the AfD Baden-Württemberg.
The state association has recently been observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected case. This is an attempt to discredit and disintegrate the AfD, Chrupalla told the German Press Agency. In democratic Europe, that was an absolutely special way, he complained.
Co-leader Alice Weidel said at the opening of the party conference that one would not stand idly by while the AfD was being excluded and silenced. Weidel was state chairman in Baden-Württemberg for two and a half years, but did not want to run again on Saturday.
It is not unconstitutional to denounce the “failures of the established parties,” Weidel said. It is even mandatory to point out such omissions. The governing parties moved further and further away from the principle of democracy. They will defend themselves politically and legally against the surveillance by the secret service, she said.