Torben Braga (born 1991 inNiterói,Brazil) is a German politician of theAlternative for Germany (AfD), previouslyFDP. He entered thestate parliament of Thuringia after thestate elections of 27 October 2019.[1]
After graduating from the German School inRio de Janeiro in 2009, Braga studied political science and public law from 2010 to 2018 at theFriedrich SchillerUniversity of Jena and at thePhilipps University of Marburg. He completed his studies with a Master of Arts.[2]
During his studies he became a member of the JenafraternityGermania and the Marburg fraternityGermania. In 2015, Braga was a spokesman for the right-wing extremistDeutsche Burschenschaft.[3] Braga lives inRonneburg, Thuringia.[citation needed]
Torben Braga was a member of the Liberal Party FDP from 2012 to 2015. In the end of 2015, he joined AfD. Since 2016 he has been an assessor on the state board of the AfD Thuringia and the press spokesman. In November 2020 he was elected deputy chairman of the Thuringian state association.
In the2019 Thuringian state election of 27 October 2019, he was second inWeimarer Land I – Saalfeld-Rudolstadt III constituency, but was anyway elected to thestate parliament of Thuringia via the party list. The state was in a deadlock as the left wing coalition of three parties (Left, SPD, Greens) had no majority anymore, but the mathematical center-right majority of CDU, FDP and AfD was unable to act as no other party wanted to cooperate with the AfD. This led to the2020 Thuringian government crisis. The election of a FDP member as Thuringian Minister President (for a short time) in 2020 attracted considerable national and international attention because, for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, a Minister President was elected due to votes from a far-right populist party, in this case the AfD. Braga was credited with the idea that AfD members would vote for their own candidate only in the first two rounds, with a surprising switch to the FDP candidate in the third round.
For the2021 German federal election, Braga was elected on 8 May 2021 by the AfD Thuringia to number 4 on the list. He also ran as a direct candidate for the AfD in theJena – Sömmerda – Weimarer Land I federal constituency. Braga narrowly missed the majority of the first votes in the constituency and did not enter the Bundestag via the state list.[4][5]
He was re-elected to the Landtag of Thuringia in the2024 Thuringian state election of 1 September 2024, this time in the constituencyAltenburger Land II.
Torben Braga is considered the right-hand man of thevölkisch "AfD-Star"Björn Höcke in the Thuringian state parliament.[6]
He is a member of theGermania fraternity in Marburg, which is associated with theNeue Rechte. Members of theInstitute for State Policy gave lectures there. He was spokesman for the right-wing extremist association of nationalist fraternities.[6][7][8]
