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The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is embroiled in a bitter internal row over conscription, with the party’s anti-Nato wing appearing to prevail ahead of regional elections this autumn.
Rüdiger Lucassen, a former Bundeswehr colonel who is one of the most pro-American figures in his party, stepped down this week as AfD defence spokesperson after eight years in the job. His departure highlights the growing strength of the party’s eastern German faction ahead of two critical state elections in the region in September.
The resignation of the 74-year-old ex-helicopter pilot followed a months-long argument about whether young people should be compelled to serve in the German armed forces — a particularly sensitive topic in former communist eastern Germany, where sympathy for Russia and suspicion of the US are stronger than in western parts of the country.
On paper, the AfD is in favour of reintroducing compulsory military service, which was suspended in the EU’s most populous nation in 2011. But at a recent party retreat, the AfD leadership decided to dodge the unpopular topic altogether.
Although eastern states are home to just under a quarter of Germany’s 84mn population, they have a powerful standing within the AfD because of the party’s strong electoral support in the region. It wins as much as 40 per cent of the vote in some parts. In the September elections, it is on track to come first in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state and could win control of a regional government for the first time in Saxony-Anhalt.
Unlike many of its European counterparts, the AfD, which was founded in 2013 in response to the Eurozone crisis, has been radicalising rather than moderating as it grows in electoral strength. The AfD claimed a record second-place finish in Germany’s parliamentary elections last year with 21 per cent of the vote.
The row over conscription dates back to last autumn as the ruling coalition, led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, was wrestling with plans for a voluntary form of military service as part of Germany’s drive to radically strengthen its armed forces. Lucassen had suggested that the AfD back the return of a compulsory model.
The proposal triggered a backlash spearheaded by Björn Höcke, the flag-bearer of the party’s radical, ethnonationalist wing, which also includes some of the party’s most pro-Moscow and anti-Nato voices.
Höcke, who leads the AfD in the eastern German state of Thuringia, told regional parliament to imagine in graphic detail their sons or grandsons being blown up on a foreign battlefield or tortured as prisoners of war.
He said he could not support conscription in a country that had nothing worth defending but only “drag queen performances in kindergartens”, deindustrialisation, mass immigration and a culture of national guilt for the second world war. Höcke said he was concerned about reviving conscription given the conflict in Ukraine and the “hunger for war” among mainstream politicians.
Lucassen hit back, criticising Höcke’s remarks in the Bundestag. The party reacted to the row by issuing a formal disciplinary rebuke against Lucassen.
But the dispute continued on social media. Lucassen last week accused allies of Höcke of being a group of pro-Russians and anti-Americans who were “stuck in the eternal tragedy of radicalism”.
On Monday, he resigned shortly before his AfD colleagues were due to vote on a motion to remove him from his post.
Lucassen has been replaced by Jan Nolte, a member of parliament from the western state of Hesse, who is another former Bundeswehr soldier but has also expressed views that align with the Kremlin. As recently as 2024, he has given interviews to Izvestia, a newspaper owned by a company co-founded by one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest friends.
But Lucassen’s departure has not resolved the disagreements within the party.
Some members of parliament, especially those from western constituencies, continue to support the rearmament being spearheaded by defence minister Boris Pistorius — even if they disagree with the view of German intelligence and military chiefs that the main threat posed to the country is Russia.
Gerold Otten, a member of the foreign affairs committee, told the FT that he did not believe Putin would attack Nato, adding that Ukraine was a “special case”.
Still, he said, it was essential to make the Bundeswehr capable of defending the country after 30 years of being “hollowed out” because that was a basic constitutional requirement of the state.
One Bundestag member from an eastern state said military sovereignty and support for the armed forces should not be a “top priority” at a time when the government needed to rein in spending.
He added that the AfD’s stance towards Russia, with which it wants to resume trade, made it hard to understand the need for a strong military: “We are somewhat short of the opponents we supposedly have to fight.”
Additional reporting by Max Seddon in Berlin
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