The AfD within the AfD: intra-party competition strategies and radical right party development

Normalisation of radical right (RR) politics fosters opportunities for RR party organizations, but can also facilitate programmatic, organizational and strategic conflicts between competing intra-party actors. External opportunities and related formal intra-party power constellations are seen to crucially influence RR party development. Yet surprisingly, in the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the extremist grouping Der Flügel increasingly impacted the party even despite contextual normalization incentives and lower formal power resources. By analysing three critical conflicts within the AfD, we show how intra-party competition strategies can additionally play into RR party development. Flügel managed to balance contextual and formal power disadvantages by positioning itself as ‘the true party within the party’. Simultaneously, its discursive influence was crucially cemented by more powerful AfD leaders who used Flügel narratives against other established competitors for office. These insights deepen our understanding of RR party development and highlight that normalization and radicalization can coincide.