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Andreas Kalbitz, former AfD parliamentary group leader in Brandenburg
Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa
The Brandenburg AfD parliamentary group has elected Hans-Christoph Berndt to succeed its former chairman Andreas Kalbitz, who has been excluded from the party by the federal board.
The parliamentary manager of the AfD parliamentary group, Dennis Hohloch, announced this on Tuesday.
Berndt runs the association "Zukunft Heimat", which the constitution protection classifies as right-wing extremist.
Berndt was also a "proven right-wing extremist", said Jörg Müller, the head of the constitutional protection department.
Müller had also called Kalbitz a "proven right-wing extremist".
In addition to the state parliament member Berndt, the parliamentary AfD managing director Dennis Hohloch and the previous deputy group leader Birgit Bessin had applied for the chairmanship in a battle vote.
Bessin was one of the founding members of the now disbanded right-wing national AfD "wing" around the Thuringian party and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke.
Berndt won the election with 11 votes ahead of Hohloch, which received seven votes.
Three voted "no".
In May, the AfD federal executive had decided with a narrow majority to cancel Kalbitz's AfD membership, because when he joined the party in 2013 he should have concealed previous memberships with the Republicans and the now banned right-wing extremist "home-loyal German youth".
The party's federal arbitration court confirmed the expulsion at the end of July.
In mid-August Kalbitz resigned from the parliamentary group in Brandenburg.
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mfh / AFP / dpa