After two years of exclusion, AfD specialist politicians will again attend the Munich Security Conference in 2026. Invitations were sent before Christmas to representatives of all Bundestag parties, a conference spokesperson said. The policy shift comes under acting chairman Wolfgang Ischinger.
The Munich Security Conference (MSC), the world's premier forum on security policy, will take place from February 13 to 15, 2026, at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof. Dozens of heads of state and government, along with foreign and defense ministers, are expected. After excluding the AfD in 2024 and 2025, the approach has shifted. Former director Christoph Heusgen had barred the party and BSW because their representatives walked out during Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Zelenskyy's Bundestag speech. 'That is the opposite of dialogue, and I do not want to experience something similar at the conference,' Heusgen explained.
Now, Wolfgang Ischinger, who previously led the conference and is serving as interim chair in 2026—since Jens Stoltenberg remains Norway's finance minister—has, with the board, sent invitations to specialist politicians from foreign and security policy committees of all parties. AfD parliamentary leader Alice Weidel has not yet received one, but the process is ongoing.
The decision draws criticism. CSU state group leader Alexander Hoffmann recently advocated continued exclusion due to AfD ties to Russia and China: 'Information flows there too. And that would be a security risk.' He also slammed a recent AfD trip to the US, where six MPs built links to Donald Trump's circle. AfD spokesperson Markus Frohnmaier announced a Berlin congress for February inviting US representatives.
In 2025, US Vice President JD Vance sharply condemned the AfD exclusion: 'There is no place for firewalls.' He met with Weidel instead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
