“Violence must never be a means of politics in Germany”—AfD MP Tobias Teich

Tobias Teich has been a member of Alternative for Germany since 2013, holding various positions such as regional vice president of the AfD in Bavaria, deputy spokesperson for the regional group, and local chairman of the AfD’s local association in Manching-Wolnzach-Geisenfeld. Since the 2025 federal election, Teich has represented the Munich East constituency in the German Bundestag.

Finally, the perpetrator of the arson attacks on the AfD offices in Munich has been arrested. Were you surprised by the terrorist’s links to the far left?

Surprised? No, I don’t think this information really surprised anyone. This attack is unfortunately just one of countless violent attacks against our party. We have a major problem not only with the omnipresent left-wing political violence but, above all, with how society and the media deal with this violence. It’s clear that left-wing political violence doesn’t get the attention it deserves in a left-dominated media landscape like ours. But this suppression and the ‘interpretation’ or ‘embellishment’ of the statistics is only part of the problem. The other part is the glorification of left-wing violence. There are indeed major daily newspapers where you’ll learn that left-wing violence is a good thing, violence originating from the people against tyranny, and therefore should naturally be treated differently in court. And look at the verdicts; this elite lobbying is quite successful. Just compare the sentences you get in Germany for insulting a left-wing politician with the sentence for a violent attack against a right-winger.

The CSU headquarters was also attacked in the same way. Has the CSU shown support for the AfD?

Of course not. There’s always the Brandmauer (firewall). Seriously though, it’s becoming clear to all conservatives that this whole Brandmauer thing is utter madness. The problem is that the current decision-makers not only created this madness themselves, but in some cases, they’ve also tied their political survival to it. A CSU without Söder or a CDU without Merz could certainly be considered as a coalition partner. But as long as this leadership is where it is, they’ll distance themselves from us, even if the far left is simultaneously burning down our offices.

Earlier you mentioned the double standard with regard to violence on the left, so don’t you expect a harsh sentence?

No, because there are two different standards for punishing political violence. And given that this violence originates from the left of the political spectrum, it can be assumed that the punishment will be symbolic. This political establishment uses this violence to deter its political opponents. Their willing accomplices are the far-left extremists, and in most cases, their violence is directed against the Right. However, as we saw during the COVID pandemic, a nature-loving hippie who opposes vaccinations and lockdowns can very quickly be labelled as right-wing by the system.

Antifa is considered a terrorist organisation in the United States. What about in Germany?

No, in Germany, Antifa is not only not banned, it is funded by taxpayers’ money. The AfD parliamentary group already introduced a motion on October 16th, 2025, to ban the so-called Antifa in the Bundestag. While the SPD, Greens, and Left Party unanimously rejected this motion, the very structures we warned about are becoming ever more prone to violence. Antifa should be treated as what it is: an organisation hostile to the constitution and oriented toward violence. Violence must never be a means of politics in Germany.

Why is violence from the far left whitewashed by the media and even by some politicians?

The simple answer is because the media and some politicians are far-left extremists. How we got to the point where our entire political spectrum shifted to the left is another question. You can see that this is the case by the fact that even in the early 2000s, the demands of the AfD weren’t considered far-right. They were all rooted in the conservative spectrum. But then there was a complete shift to the left in politics, which mirrored this shift in society—in universities, publishing houses, and media companies. 

This new left-wing political orientation brought forth Merkel, the ‘welcome culture,’ the nuclear phase-out, the death of conservatism in the CDU, and many other terrible things. The entire political path we embarked upon has proven disastrous. But the people who pushed us down this path are still in their positions. They are the media and politicians who engage in this ‘whitewashing.’

On Monday, AfD MP Bernd Baumann’s car was set on fire in Hamburg. It seems clear that whitewashing encourages violence.

Of course, the arson attack on the car of my colleague Bernd Baumann is a cowardly assault on a leading representative of the largest opposition faction in the German Bundestag and thus an attack on democracy itself. Anyone who threatens elected representatives and their families or destroys their property is striking at the very foundation of our constitutional state.

Left-wing extremists have claimed responsibility for the act on Indymedia (a decentralised network of far-left activist websites frequently used by militants to publish confessions and calls to violence) and at the same time openly called for armed struggle. This confession reveals how deep the hatred of those who think differently has already become and how dangerously political coarsening has developed in our country.

Last year, political violence in Germany increased, and the AfD was the most targeted party. This year, with the party’s steady rise in the polls, the situation can only have worsened, but has anything changed since Merz took over?

With the success of the AfD, the pressure on the political establishment naturally increases. This, in turn, encourages violence through their rhetoric. As for Merz, his chancellorship will not change anything for the better. He will only accelerate the decline. The only good thing I can think of about Merkel is that she banished this man from politics.

How would the AfD stop political violence in Germany?

We are all human beings. Violence and political violence will always be a part of our world. What we can do, for example, is apply the law equally to every form of violence. Stop spreading the narrative that there is such a thing as just violence.