Germany's AfD and BSW not invited to Munich Security Conference

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As Germany prepares to host the Munich Security Conference later this month, two German political parties are to be excluded from this year's gathering, according to the chairman of the defence forum.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) have not been invited to join world leaders and lawmakers due to attend the meeting taking place from February 14 to 16.

The annual conference is an independent forum for security policy decision makers to debate current and future challenges. Attendees usually include heads of states, governments and international organizations, ministers, lawmakers and senior defence figures.

Conference chair Christoph Heusgen said AfD and BSW did not comply with the conference's core principle of peace through dialogue.

Heusgen pointed to lawmakers from both parties boycotting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's June speech to Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, as an example of this.

"That is the opposite of dialogue and I do not want to experience anything similar at the conference," Heusgen said.

For a long time, it was customary for all parties represented in the Bundestag to be invited to the conference.

Heusgen deviated from this practice in 2023 when he chaired the conference for the first time and did not invite any AfD lawmakers. Last year, he also excluded BSW from the invite list.

The Munich Security Conference has been held in the Bavarian capital every winter since 1963 with rare exceptions.