Munich Security Conference to take place without German pro-Russian political parties

The organisers of the Munich Security Conference, which will be held on 14-16 February, have not invited representatives of the far-right Alternative for Germany political party and the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party to attend.

According to German news agency DPA, the annual conference is an independent forum where security policymakers discuss current and future challenges. 

Participants usually include heads of state, government and international organisations, ministers, MPs and senior defence officials.

Conference chairman Christoph Heusgen said that the Alternative for Germany party and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance do not adhere to the conference's core principle of peace through dialogue.

An example of this was the boycott by members of both parties of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech in the German parliament, the Bundestag, in June.

"This is the opposite of dialogue, and I don't want anything like this to happen at the conference," said Heusgen.

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

However, when Heusgen first chaired the conference in 2023, he departed from this practice and did not invite any MPs from Alternative for Germany. 

Last year, he also excluded the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance from the list of invitees.

The Munich Security Conference has been held in Munich every winter since 1963, with few exceptions.

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will become chairman of the Munich Security Conference in February 2025.