AfD co-party leader Jörg Meuthen: Under pressure
Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / DPAJörg Meuthen is currently fighting a fight with an uncertain outcome. The co-head of the AfD had brought about a brief board decision in May, with which the membership of the Brandenburg AfD politician Andreas Kalbitz was canceled.
In the meantime, the AfD Federal Arbitration Court has confirmed the withdrawal of membership, but nothing has really been clarified. Kalbitz continues to argue before the civil court.
On August 21, an oral hearing will take place before the 43rd Civil Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court. Kalbitz wants to take action against the latest decision of the AfD Federal Arbitration Court with a temporary injunction.
The now non-party, who is leaving his AfD parliamentary group chairman in the Brandenburg state parliament for the time being, wants to achieve that all party rights are returned to him - until a decision in a later main proceedings before a civil court.
The outcome of his emergency application to the regional court is open. In June he had succeeded in front of the same chamber, had temporarily become an AfD member again.
Not the only risk for the co-party leader
Kalbitz was accused by the federal board of having, among other things, withholding membership of the right-wing extremist and banned HDJ when joining the AfD. He, in turn, denies membership, but the Office for the Protection of the Constitution refers to an HDJ membership list with a "family Andreas Kalbitz".
Can Kalbitz soon score again in a civil court? Meuthen's camp is looking forward to the urgent procedure with excitement. However, it is not the only risk the co-party leader faces in a hard-fought power struggle.
The intra-party war surrounding Kalbitz - once a leading figure in the officially disbanded national-ethnic "wing" network - is being waged in many places. For some time now, one concerns the fine that the party has to pay to the Bundestag for Meuthen because of the campaign support provided by the Swiss Goal AG.
At the end of June, the AfD Federal Convention, a kind of small party conference, decided that the AfD would no longer take Meuthen's donation affair to the Higher Administrative Court. The fine was thus accepted.
In January, Meuthen and the AfD suffered a defeat before the Berlin Administrative Court. The court thus followed the view of the Bundestag administration, according to which the Goal advertising measures from 2016 are to be regarded as illegal party donations and the party has to pay a triple fine of a total of 269,400 euros, which is customary in these cases.
In the case of Goal AG, the AfD federal executive also decided in mid-July to settle the fine against the AfD European politician Guido Reil in the amount of 133,500 euros - the topic should be off the table.
But the donation process for Meuthen is far from ticked off for part of the party - at least for Meuthen's opponents. Your approach throws another spotlight on the hardship with which Kalbitz is being fought internally in these weeks.
At the forefront: AfD federal vice-president Stephan Brandner, member of the Bundestag from Björn Höcke's Thuringian regional association, lawyer and "wing" supporter. On July 17, he submitted a motion for the federal executive committee meeting, which pretends to be concerned about the highest body, but at the core reads like a declaration of war to Meuthen .
An all-encompassing catalog of requirements
In Brandner's paper, which is available to SPIEGEL together with the reasons, the AfD federal office should be instructed to "immediately submit a final summary of the costs (especially for lawyers and courts) and expected payments in the Meuthen donation matter" to the board members.
In addition, a lawyer should prepare a legally binding assessment of whether the federal party "has recourse claims against Jörg Meuthen or others in the Meuthen donation matter" and, if so, "in what amount and on what legal basis and how and in what period of time these apply made and enforced.
AfD politician Stephan Brandner in the Bundestag: Representatives from the Thuringian regional association by Björn Höcke
Photo: HAYOUNG JEON / EPA-EFE / REXThe lawyer should also check whether the board of directors or its members are "under criminal and / or civil law or otherwise legally obliged" to "assert" or enforce these claims for the party "against Jörg Meuthen". Brandner also wanted to clarify what consequences board members "may have to fear criminal and / or civil and / or otherwise legally if they fail to comply with such legal obligations".
It was an all-encompassing catalog of demands that led to heated debates in the board meeting. Meuthen, a participant recalls to SPIEGEL, said they were trying to "finish off" him.
Brandner's legal argumentation: parties are "predominantly treated like associations", where all legal and actual acts are attributed to him due to the position of an association's executive board. It follows that "all board members are fundamentally obliged to avert (financial) damage to the association". However, if an appeal against a judgment is waived "or if one is withdrawn that obliges to claim damages", this could only "only exist if this was justified" with restrictions.
But Meuthen was lucky. The advance had no consequences. For now. Brandner's motion was withdrawn on July 17, and Vice-Chairman Alice Weidel is said to have voted in favor of it. Probably also out of self-interest - after all, her Swiss donation affair is not over yet, a fine from the Bundestag for the AfD is still possible in her case.
With the withdrawal of the Brandner paper, however, the process does not seem to have been finally shelved. According to the board of directors to SPIEGEL, it is planned to "bring him back in a modified form at a later date."
The AfD war by almost any means, it continues.
Icon: The mirror