AfD Co-Founder Alexander Gauland Battles Cancer
The 85-year-old politician and honorary chairman is currently working from home and undergoing treatment.
Alexander Gauland, co-founder and honorary chairman of Alternative for Germany (AfD), is suffering from cancer and can only participate in German Bundestag sessions to a limited extent. His office confirmed the diagnosis following initial reports by the news portal Tag24.
According to his office manager, Marco Wall, the 85-year-old politician has already undergone three operations. His current participation in parliamentary plenums depends on how well his ongoing chemotherapy works. While Gauland is currently working from his home, he hopes to return to in-person sessions in Berlin soon.
Bernd Baumann, the First Parliamentary Secretary of the AfD group, addressed reporters in Berlin to express the party's shock over the diagnosis. Baumann praised Gauland for displaying "iron discipline" while attending previous sessions, noting that colleagues knew he was unwell although the exact illness was kept private.
Prior to the 2025 federal election, Gauland had initially announced his retirement from active politics. However, he decided to run again and secured a direct mandate in his hometown of Chemnitz, making him the oldest member of the current parliament. Statistics show he has missed nearly half of the roll-call votes in the ongoing legislative period.
Gauland spent many years as a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) before helping found the AfD in 2013. Following the departure of co-founder Bernd Lucke in 2015, Gauland played a central role in steering the party toward the political right and aligning it with anti-migration protests.
As a leading figure within the party, Gauland served as a co-leader of both the national party and the parliamentary group from 2017 to 2019. He was widely recognized for bridging different factions within the party and offering political backing to more radical figures on the nationalist wing.