AfD faces internal rift over compulsory military service demand

Few demands are as consistently featured in the Alternative for Germany (AfD) platform as the reintroduction of compulsory military service. Long before other parties began discussing the return of conscription, the AfD had repeatedly raised the issue. In its 2016 manifesto and all subsequent manifestos for Bundestag and European elections since 2017, the party linked this demand to the argument that Germany’s defense capabilities needed to be strengthened.

However, for the past two and a half years, debates over conscription have been ongoing within the party. According to WELT, the behind-the-scenes discussion is now reaching a climax. This is due to the intervention of eastern regional associations, which want to block a related motion from the Bundestag faction.

For example, a statement released last Sunday by the leaders of the East German AfD parliamentary groups declared, “No compulsory military service for foreign wars.”

According to information obtained by WELT, the Thuringia state association, led by Björn Höcke, is at the forefront of the eastern leaders who argue that Germany does not “act sovereignly in its foreign policy.”

Party co-chairman Tino Chrupalla, who has spoken out against compulsory military service several times in the past during the ongoing war in Ukraine, is also reportedly involved in this plan.

Previously, a meeting of the AfD parliamentary group’s working group leaders in the Bundestag had approved the motion “Securing Germany’s defense capability – reinstating compulsory military service” without changes, as seen in the minutes from September 9, which are available to WELT.

Only two leaders voted against the motion. The motion was then placed on the agenda for the parliamentary group meeting.

But when the statement from the eastern parliamentary group leaders arrived, this decision was reversed. According to an email sent to the parliamentary group by a staff member on Sunday evening, the motion was “prepared prematurely due to a misunderstanding” and “postponed for further consultation.”

At the initiative of parliamentary secretary Bernd Baumann, an internal meeting was held in the Bundestag on Wednesday. Defense politicians and representatives from Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt reached a compromise. As a result, the sentence “The deployment of soldiers in foreign wars must be excluded” will be added to the beginning of the motion’s explanatory section.

However, this is not enough for the critics, as they accuse the federal government of a “propensity for escalation.” They are also concerned about their carefully constructed image as a party of peace and point to the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt in September 2026.

Indeed, the AfD has managed to attract new voter groups with its peace policy, especially in the eastern part of the country.

But in western Germany, this situation is viewed much more critically. State elections are also approaching there: in the vote in Baden-Württemberg in March, the lead candidate Markus Frohnmaier, a close confidant of co-chairwoman Alice Weidel, is one of the strongest proponents of compulsory military service within the parliamentary group and has taken a clear position within the party. The majority of the parliamentary group also sides with him.

The conflict has been ongoing since February 2023. At that time, Bundestag faction leader Chrupalla ensured that a motion on compulsory military service from his colleagues, which had already been announced for debate in the plenary session on the Bundestag website, was sent back for internal consultation.

According to information obtained by WELT, Chrupalla argued at the parliamentary group meeting at the time that he did not want his sons to be used in “proxy wars” or “for American and foreign interests.”

Several supporters from Saxony shared the same view. Internally, there was anger over a parliamentary group magazine that rejected the text prepared by the defense policy working group, which called for the “urgent reintroduction of compulsory military service.”

Since then, the debate has repeatedly flared up. In October 2024, the AfD’s federal program commission decided, with Chrupalla’s vote, to remove this demand from the election program for the Bundestag elections.

In a December 2024 interview with WELT, the AfD leader justified his no-vote by stating that the current debate gave the impression that the aim was to introduce compulsory military service “to send young people to the front lines of the war in Ukraine.”

Shortly thereafter, approximately 71% of participants in a non-public member survey supported the demand in the election program. The federal party conference followed the vote in January of this year.

After a closed-door meeting of the parliamentary group in July, it seemed the dispute had been resolved. Despite some critical voices, the majority decided to include compulsory military service in a position paper.

Chrupalla later claimed that “no one needed to convince him.” The defense working group then submitted a corresponding motion for discussion within the parliamentary group.

Now, due to the intervention from the east, the issue is back on the table. In response to a query from WELT on Monday, AfD leader Weidel said that the position of the party and the parliamentary group is clear: they are in favor of conscription.

However, Weidel added that this is “not an effective way to prevent German soldiers from being misused to serve in Ukraine” and claimed that “the leaders of the SPD and CDU want our youth and our children to be sent to war.”

The parliamentary group plans to make a decision at one of its upcoming meetings.