With the journalist konrad adam (78), the last of the three afd founding chairmen is now also leaving the party.
"On 1. January 2021, i will no longer be a member of the afd," adam told the deutsche presse-agentur in berlin. He no longer sees a future for the afd as a "civic conservative" force, he explained his decision.
Adam accused the leader of the afd parliamentary group, alexander gauland, of always protecting "right-wingers like andreas kalbitz and the thuringian state leader bjorn hocke". In doing so, he said, he had contributed to the steady growth of the right-wing wing’s influence in the party. Moreover, the afd was on the wrong track with its negative stance on environmental and climate protection, criticized adam, who is a member of the hessian state association.
The conservative journalist is one of the founding members of the afd. In 2013 he took over the party presidency together with frauke petry and bernd lucke. Lucke left the afd in july 2015, after he was voted out of office at a party conference in essen that was marked by turmoil. He was followed by numerous members of the economic liberal wing. Adam failed with his candidacy for the position of chairman at that time.
In the end, he was only active in the afd-affiliated desiderius-erasmus foundation, which is headed by the former CDU member of parliament erika steinbach, and of which he is still honorary chairman. Petry had left the afd in the fall of 2017. Since then, she has been a member of the bundestag without a parliamentary party.