Andreas Kalbitz: Out, in, out - and back into the AfD?

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Andreas Kalbitz: Once in the AfD, currently non-party

Before the district court in Berlin-Mitte, the turbulent week should come to a conciliatory end, at least that's how Andreas Kalbitz imagines it. It is still unclear whether the 43rd Civil Chamber will even pass a judgment on that day. Kalbitz, once Brandenburg's AfD state and parliamentary leader and member of the federal executive board, has recently become a non-party member of his parliamentary group in the Potsdam state parliament.

This was canceled by the AfD federal board in May at the instigation of co-boss Jörg Meuthen. Kalbitz temporarily sued the party again until the AfD Federal Arbitration Court confirmed his expulsion at the end of July. Against this he is now taking legal action again. 

The media interest in the case is enormous. So big that the court made another room available, in which at least the tone of the oral hearing in the morning is broadcast. Due to the corona restrictions, only a certain number of media representatives and visitors are allowed to be present in the actual meeting room 0208/0209.

In the AfD federal board, the Kalbitz opponents are confident that the former colleague will be defeated in court this time. Should Kalbitz, however, once again get his membership back this time - until a decision he sought in the main proceedings - his opponents would have a problem. In one fell swoop, Kalbitz would be a member of the board of directors and state head of Brandenburg. On the other hand, he would not automatically return to the group chairmanship, he had renounced that this week.

And so the Kalbitz opponents are preparing for the worst-case scenario: If the court should grant Kalbitz temporary legal protection this time too, an appeal will be filed against it. In addition, the AfD federal board should quickly decide on possible regulatory measures. There is talk of a ban from office to the initiation of formal party exclusion proceedings. It has accumulated a lot, it is said with a view to the recent vortex about a presumed boxing blow by Kalbitz against an actually close colleague.

This week it became known that the incumbent AfD parliamentary group leader Dennis Hohloch is lying in a Berlin hospital with a ruptured spleen - Andreas Kalbitz is said to be responsible for the injury. Kalbitz himself called it "a regrettable matter" that will "be completely cleared up". The Potsdam public prosecutor's office is currently investigating him on suspicion of negligent bodily harm (read more details here).

Kalbitz's position no longer seems unchallenged in the far-right AfD camp. Together with the Thuringian AfD country chief Björn Höcke, he was once the leading figure in the "wing" network, which has now been officially disbanded and classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Now the boxing affair could cost him sympathy, even among former supporters. At least that's what his opponents hope. "Kalbitz is politically dead in Brandenburg as well," says the AfD's Meuthen camp.

For Kalbitz there is hardly any good news these days. The Berlin public prosecutor's office has been investigating him since the beginning of August - on suspicion of false affidavit.

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Kalbitz opponent Jörg Meuthen

This involves two affidavits in which Kalbitz had assured the Berlin Regional Court in June that he was not a member of the now banned right-wing extremist "Heimattreuen Deutschen Jugend" or their predecessor organization. The AfD federal executive board had accused him in May of concealing his membership in the HDJ and the Republicans when he joined the AfD in 2013. In a report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the HDJ membership of a "Andreas Kalbitz family" is given under the number "01330". There is also evidence that Kalbitz had once visited two summer camps - the HDJ and its predecessor.

The AfD's arbitration judgment is now available in writing

The now available 49-page verdict of the AfD Federal Arbitration Court (it fell with eight against one vote) has solved the problem that the party judges had no concrete evidence of HDJ membership with a formulation: For the "acceptance of 'membership' it may be sufficient if an applicant belongs to an extremist organization and would have been actively involved in favor of its goals, whereby a first-time or one-off activity can be sufficient ". The previous membership "would also have had to be reported by the applicant" when applying for membership in the AfD. There is "some evidence that the applicant was at least treated like a member within the HDJ," says the party judge's brief, which SPIEGEL has received.

His opponents believe that Kalbitz will be lonely. For example, they point out that this week one of his former "wing" comrades-in-arms, AfD member of the Bundestag Frank Pasemann, was excluded from the party by the Saxony-Anhalt AfD regional arbitration court. Although Pasemann can appeal against it, it is still a sign that the "wing" is under pressure, they say. Pasemann recently described the punch as a "fairy tale of the tangible argument between Hohloch and Kalbitz" in an internal chat group.

At least it is striking: Höcke has not yet commented publicly on Kalbitz's alleged boxing. The AfD honorary chairman Alexander Gauland now spoke to the alleged victim Hohloch and then said what had happened was "unforgivable". But Gauland emphasized that his statement had nothing to do with his support for Kalbitz in the dispute over his membership in the party. "These are two completely different pairs of shoes," said Gauland.

The punch, the investigation and a suspected false testimony, none of this will play a role in the regional court on Friday. The sole question here is whether Kalbitz will regain his party rights by means of an urgent application - pending the main proceedings. Regardless of whether the court already makes a decision on Friday: The AfD will not calm down anytime soon.