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After the deselection of Stephan Brandner, the AFD faction peak showed maximum indignation. It is the role that the party best knows how to play - that of the victim of the prevailing conditions.
Such productions find their fans in the social networks that the right-wing populists masterfully serve with small movies. Co-faction leader Alice Weidel played this role further, verbally addressed journalists at a press conference in the Bundestag, spoke of "stupid" questions. So much contempt for media representatives known from the Trump-America, but not from a German parliament.
Brandner knew what he was doing
True, the AfD is the victim of the prevailing conditions - in this case, rightly so. For the first time a committee chairman of the Bundestag was voted out, a CSU politician now leads the business.
The majority has taken a AfD-Scharfredner the office - out of self-esteem. Brandner, a lawyer with a quick tongue and a cold mind, had stood aside from any decency with his Twitter comments after the failed right-wing and anti-Semitic attack in Halle. One may assume: he knew what he was doing. With a secretive explanation, he tried to capture his comments. That was transparent and came too late. Even in the harsh political business, there are limits to what can be said - the majority in the Bundestag recalled this with its decision in committee today.
Even before his rise to chairmanship of the Committee on Legal Affairs in the Bundestag, the West German Brandner in the Thuringian state parliament on the side of the local AfD leader Björn Höcke had provoked sometimes sarcastic and cynical speeches. A role in which he liked - even after his move from Erfurt to Berlin. His ambition to attract attention was known - even in the AfD.
Within the folk-nationalist "wing" Brandner has long been considered a man who has ambitions for higher congregations in the Bundestag faction. There he holds the office of the Justitiars. Only in the summer, he tried to prefer the elections to the AFD Group Council - but failed with it. He was internally said to want even in the board. Brandner does not lack self-confidence and political aggressiveness. Some and many in the AFD Group will not be very sad about his departure today.
The dignity of Parliament
That being said, Brandner has quite rightly lost his chairmanship of the Legal Affairs Committee. Those who preside over such a body in a democratic constitutional state do not speak only for themselves. Contemptuous and callous statements to political competitors reveal something of the character of the sender, they are the border that a parliament that respects its dignity - This old-sounding term becomes meaningful again in these excited times - it can not be offered.
To avert conspiracy theories at this point: The AFD has the right, according to their share of votes and as the strongest opposition force committee chairman. But she also bears the responsibility for who she sets up. In the two committees for budget and tourism, which are led by no less controversial AfD politicians, so far not such violent provocations were known, as they came again and again from Brandner.
The reactions from the AfD were to be expected. Part of it is also fed by tactical considerations. At the end of November, the party will meet in Braunschweig for the Federal Party Congress, during which the leadership will be re-elected. The strengthened volkisch "wing" to which Brandner belongs will have a decisive say in the process. It is therefore to be presumed that until then the ranks remain firmly closed-even to those who have always regarded Brandner as an impossible representative of their party.
It will be interesting to see who the AFD nominates after its party congress for the presidency of the Legal Committee. The other parties should not make the mistake of rejecting every right-wing candidate from the outset - as has happened for months in the election of the vice-president. Such a deal allows the AfD the pose that she likes to take care of.
Because of bourgeois virtues
Brandner is the best example of this - he sees himself as the victim of a world in which one can not stand by his "opinions". As if it was just about it. He is supported in his outrage by co-faction leader Alexander Gauland, who speaks otherwise so much of bourgeois virtues, in the case of Brandner's tweets but until recently not publicly announced.
Instead, here is the familiar pattern. After the deselection Gauland spoke of a "taboo break" and an "imposition on democracy".
No, that's not it. Brandner was the taboo of the AfD and an imposition on democracy. A democratic parliament has to endure many things. But it does not have to put up with everything.
