Ruling CSU vows to exclude AfD from Munich Security Conference 2026

The exclusion of the conservative AfD party from the Munich Security Conference last year angered the U.S. government. Representatives of the party will be allowed in 2026, a spokesperson of the conference said on Sunday.

CSU parliamentary group leader Alexander Hoffmann has spoken out in favor of excluding the AfD from the Munich Security Conference again next year. The head of the CSU members of parliament in the Bundestag justified this by pointing to the AfD’s alleged contacts with Russia and China. “Information flows there as well,” he said. “And that would therefore be a security risk.”

The Munich Security Conference is the world’s most important expert gathering on security policy. In 2026 it will take place from February 13th to 15th. Dozens of heads of state and government as well as foreign and defense ministers are once again expected at the hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich.

Heusgen already excluded AfD and BSW

Defense and foreign-policy politicians from the Bundestag’s parliamentary groups are also represented at the conference. But over the past two years, the now-departed conference chair Christoph Heusgen had decided not to invite the AfD. Last year—shortly before the federal election—the BSW was also excluded.

Christoph Heusgen

Heusgen justified this by saying that representatives of both parliamentary groups had left the Bundestag during a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “That is the opposite of dialogue, and I don’t want to experience anything similar at the conference,” he said.

Vance met Weidel instead of Scholz

U.S. Vice President JD Vance sharply criticized this in a historic speech at the Security Conference. “There is no place for firewalls,” he said, accusing European allies of endangering democracy. He then demonstratively met with AfD leader Alice Weidel outside the conference venue. By contrast, a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) at the time did not take place.

Hoffmann hopes for U.S. understanding

Hoffmann is counting on the United States showing understanding this time for excluding the AfD. “I believe that if you explain to the Americans what the background is, and if the Americans take a deeper look at the AfD, it will also become very clear from their side why the AfD cannot be there,” he told the German Press Agency DPA.

Wolfgang Ischinger, ehemaliger Vorsitzender der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz

Ischinger made a decision

The future chair of the Security Conference is going to be former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. However, since he is still serving as Norway’s finance minister, the 2026 Security Conference will be led by Wolfgang Ischinger, who chaired it for many years before Heusgen.

As of Sunday night, Ischinger told the German Press Agency DPA that AfD politicians will be invited for the 2026 coneference.

Hoffmann criticizes AfD's US Trip

CSU lead Hoffmann sharply criticized the recent trip to the US by AfD politicians. “They go to the US and then act as if they actually have something to say there, politically and diplomatically,” he said. “And then there are meetings where they badmouth Germany.” Critical questions, for example, about the US policy on Ukraine, were not asked, the CSU politician complained. “I consider this anti-German diplomacy.”

AfD plans conference with US politicians

Six AfD members of the Bundestag traveled to Washington and New York in mid-December to strengthen ties with the administration of US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. During the trip, Markus Frohnmaier, deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group and foreign policy spokesperson, announced a congress in Berlin for February, to which representatives of the US State Department, members of Congress, and US lobbying organizations are to be invited.