The Berlin AfD will continue to be led by Kristin Brinker. At a party conference on Saturday in Spandau, 169 of the 211 members present voted for the 50-year-old, who ran unopposed. 33 voted no with 7 abstentions and 2 invalid votes. Brinker received 80.9 percent of the valid votes. The politician, who has also been the leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the House of Representatives since 2021, took over the leadership of the party two years ago.
In her party speech, she denied the other parties the ability to really advance the capital. “Berlin needs an alternative for the future. Only we offer this political alternative,” she said. The AfD wants to show that to people in the city in the remaining three years of the legislative period.
“We will fight for an economically prosperous, but also a social city,” announced Brinker. The schools would have to keep the promise of advancement for all children. “We don’t want to ban people from cycling or driving,” Brinker said. In the future, the car shouldn’t just be a “means of transport for the rich”.
In large parts of her speech, Brinker worked on the CDU, SPD and Greens. After the repeat election to the House of Representatives, it became apparent that the CDU was throwing all promises made during the election campaign overboard in the coalition negotiations with the SPD. One has to ask oneself whether the CDU has any convictions at all. “Sometimes she cuddles with the Reds, she sometimes cuddles with the Greens, just to finally be back in the Red City Hall.”
Brinker continued: “I am happy and proud that the previous left-green disaster government here in Berlin could be ended in the repeat election.” After more than two decades in the town hall, the SPD is responsible for the educational misery, housing shortage, chaos in the administration and high debt.
Finally, Brinker also attacked the Greens. “If the Greens have their way, in future we’ll only move around Berlin on foot, by cargo bike or by public transport. If the Greens have their way, we’ll only pursue feminine politics with gender asterisks and deface our beautiful German language.” The AfD rejects such an exclusion of broad sections of the population.
As Brinker said, the AfD classifies the goal of the referendum on March 26 for climate neutrality by 2030 as unrealistic. “A noble request, but completely unrealistic and utopian.” Brinker called for voting no in the referendum.
“As the only really conservative party, political Berlin can no longer be imagined without us,” she said, referring to the founding of the AfD ten years ago. “We are the ones who address grievances openly, transparently and courageously, both on the street and in parliament.”
Brinker was her party’s top candidate in the repeat election on February 12. The AfD received 9.1 percent of the votes in the election, a slight increase compared to the election in September 2021 (8.0 percent). However, the party clearly missed Brinker’s self-imposed election target – “twelve percent in any case”.
The party conference took place in a school, the venue had been made available to the AfD by the Spandau district. Representatives of the school expressed their protest by covering the lettering “Kant-Gymnasium” above the school’s entrance with a tarpaulin.
