Germany: knife-fired war within the AfD

Correspondent in Berlin

Because of his oval glasses, his discreet square mustache and his frequenting of neo-Nazi circles, his detractors compare him to Heinrich Himmler, the late chief of the SS. Controversial AfD leader Andreas Kalbitz is at the center of a fratricidal struggle which threatens to implode the far-right German party. The match that set the house on fire is the attempt of the main spokesperson for this group, Jörg Meuthen, who embodies the moderate current, to exclude his rival, 47 years old. As in a plot, the decision was taken behind closed doors a week ago, by a small majority of the party's executive office, which took Kalbitz supporters by surprise. The management board criticizes the latter for having concealed, when he joined the AfD in 2013, his past membership of a neo-Nazi group baptized German Youth Loyal to the Fatherland (HDJ), as well as to the Republicans, an old formation of extreme right of the years

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