Young Alternative for Germany

The Young Alternative for Germany ( or JA) is a political youth organisation in Germany. Founded on 15 June 2013 in Darmstadt and open to people aged 14 to 35 years, it presents itself as the youth wing of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, but remains legally independent. Its chairman is Hannes Gnauck, and its vice-chairpersons are Sven Kachelmann, Tomasz Froelich and Nils Hartwig.

Since 2023, the JA has been classified as a right-wing extremist organisation by the German national intelligence service Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) after being a case of suspicion and an object of observation since 2019.

History
The JA was founded in June 2013, four months after the AfD, with Torsten Heinrich as the organisation's first chairperson. Heinrich left the party in March 2014.

In view of the JA's independence, it has been regarded by the AfD hierarchy as being somewhat wayward, with the JA repeatedly accused of being "too far right," politically regressive and anti-feminist among the German media.

In March 2014, the Junge Alternative hosted Nigel Farage who had been invited to address the party's North Rhine-Westphalia organisation in Cologne. The invitation is alleged to have caused some trouble within the AfD itself over the youth wing’s unauthorised invitation of Farage, with the regional association and the youth wing wanting to stress their independence. The invitation was contrary to a decision of the AfD National Executive whose policy is that official contact with foreign parties is decided only by the federal executive. Nigel Farage's presence apparently led to a deterioration in relations with Bernd Lucke, the then-AfD leader, who called the move a "sign of poor political tact."

The JA launched an anti-feminist campaign entitled "Gleichberechtigung statt Gleichmacherei" (variously translated as "equal rights, not levelling down" or "equality instead of uniformity") on Facebook in response to the Young Socialists in the SPD, which posted photos supportive of feminism to mark International Women's Day. The Facebook page of JA describes feminism as a "left-wing ideology", and asks people to post reasons to reject it. The campaign was in reaction to proposals for gender quotas. Sections of the German media labelled election campaign material of the JA which showed attractive women in swimwear under the slogan "equality instead of uniformity" as in bad taste. The JA followed with a poster of four shirtless men under the slogan "end soft justice".

In May 2014, the JA is said to have further irritated AfD bosses with a statement they released on Facebook advocating vigilante action against crime.

By 2016, the JA reported that it had over 800 members across 16 regional organisations. At the time, the JA was the official youth party of AfD state parties in North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Berlin. Although it is the de facto youth party of AfD, it is not affiliated at the federal level.

A 2021 report from the US State Department said that the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution was monitoring the JA.

References

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Alternative for Germany
Youth wings of political parties in Germany
Youth wings of conservative parties
Organizations established in 2013
2013 establishments in Germany
National conservatism
Right-wing populism in Germany
Anti-Islam sentiment in Germany