Alternative for Germany: From Multimember to Dual Leadership

The right-populist, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the most recent addition to the German party system. Its decision to install a collective leadership is unusual compared to other parties in this party family. This rested mainly on the several precursor organizations the party was built on and in some way relates to the direct-democratic ideals as part of the populist rhetoric. Despite a formal equality of the three, later two, co-chairs there was typically one de facto leader, what lead to competition and conflict in the leadership and the executive committee. Complementarity and consequently effectiveness of the collective leadership has been low to non-existent and there were frequent leadership changes. The high degree of factionalization of the AfD undermines the possibility of an integration strategy, which on the other hand has not been pursued by any of the chairpersons yet. The party leadership was and is a collection of competitive players, displaying the continuing threat of a split.