“Young Alternative” and its Difficult Relationship with the “Alternative for Germany”

Youth organisations have important recruitment and socialisation functions for political parties. This is also true for populist radical right (PRR) parties: Many of them have built well-developed youth sections, where future party leaders are educated and transnational contacts may be developed. Despite their importance, PRR youth wings are largely unexplored. To tackle this research gap, this article explores the crucial case of the “Young Alternative” (JA) – a youth organisation that still seems to be the “unwanted child” of the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD). It presents an in-depth examination of the JA’s development and relationship with AfD. The paper is based on (1) semi-structured interviews with leading JA members and (2) online communication, media articles and JA official material. The contribution of the case study will be twofold: Theoretically, it will bridge the literature on party organisation, youth participation and far-right politics. Empirically, it will be the first to open the black box of the German case.