Wild reports coming out of Germany have revealed that two politicians from rival Alternative for Germany factions have decided to settle their differences the old-fashioned way by fighting each other in a duel with swords after one challenged the other during an intense candidate nomination meeting. The duel will take place between Matthias Buschges, a city councilor for the right-wing party from Cologne, and Jeremy Franosch, a member of the Dusseldorf city council.
The event will be held at a fraternity house in front of a large crowd of spectators. It’s important to note that this is a fencing duel and not just a random sword fight to the death. The match is known as Mensur, or academic fencing, which is a sport engaged in by hundreds of traditional male university student groups across Germany.
The AfD, located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, experienced a massive fracturing in July 2026, which resulted in Buschges, a fan of moderate state chairman Martin Vincentz, challenging Franosch. Franosch is a supporter of right-wing lawmakers Matthias Helferich. Franosch told members of the press that the challenge did happen, but added, “I can’t offer a definitive opinion on Mr. Buschges’ motivation for doing this.”
According to Noticer, he then added that it was not his intention to resolve political issues and conflicts through dueling. “After all, that’s what party conventions are for, which are far more exhausting in my party than any fencing match,” he went on to say, and added that party colleagues wished him luck. Buschges told the outlet that the duel was a private matter and “has nothing to do with the party.”
Correspondence between both parties revealed that a member of Franosch’s fraternity wrote a message to Buschges’ offsider, former AfD official Kris von Kierke, concerning the upcoming duel, stating that it was set to take place at the Rhenania-Salingia and requested to know which arm the Colognian will be using in the match.
Von Gierke responded to the message by saying Buschges would be ready for the duel on October 17 and asked Franosch’s camp to provide a venue large enough for the expected number of individuals to attend the event. When the news of the duel hit social media platform X, the majority of posts responding to the story were positive. Apparently, people are ready to see the return of dueling to settle personal conflicts.
One individual responded to the story by calling the match “based.” The user said, “Based. Honestly… super based. Like, the only way to make it more based is if it were a proper duel.” A “proper duel” would be one that sees the combatants competing until the other died. “The value of traditional forms of civility & the Gentleman’s Code must be reinstated,” another user said.
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A user praised the German people for embracing tradition, saying, “Germans going back to tradition.” Someone else wrote, “At the least this will establish both men sincerely hold their positions and will put themselves, their blood, and their bodies on the line for what they believe.” Not everyone was thrilled. One individual referred to the event as a “stupid publicity stunt.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video