Germany’s AfD firms up plans to found new youth organization

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has firmed up its plans to found a new youth organization.

The founding is planned for the end of November in the city of Giessen to the north of Frankfurt. A party spokesman confirmed that the founding meeting is planned for November 29 and 30.

The board of the new organization will be elected there and the name and logo will be decided, he said.

The anti-immigration party’s previous youth wing Junge Alternative (JA) was a largely independent association. It was disbanded at the end of March following a decision by the AfD party conference.

The plan to found a new organization was justified by the party’s desire to gain more influence over the party youth.

There was also concern that the JA could be banned after Germany’s intelligence services found evidence it had anti-democratic aspirations and classified it as a right-wing extremist organization.

The successor organization is supposed to be more closely linked to the AfD in the future.

The tabloid newspaper Bild reported that Jean-Pascal Hohm, an AfD member of the Brandenburg state parliament, is being considered as the head of the new organization.

On the social media platform X, Brandenburg AfD state chairman and member of the Bundestag René Springer spoke out in favour of putting Hohm at the head of the new organization.

Hohm and four other AfD members of the Brandenburg state parliament were categorized as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence service.

The city of Giessen confirmed a planned AfD meeting in November.

“We can also confirm that there are already two registered demonstrations against this event,” a city spokeswoman told dpa.

The city is in constant dialogue with the security authorities, she said. “We are monitoring the situation and are preparing for the situation,” the spokeswoman added.