AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag: ex-spokesman Christian Lüth should be dismissed with immediate effect

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AfD parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland with Christian Lüth (2019): Long a relationship of trust

Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa

Christian Lüth had been on leave since spring.

Now the former press spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group is to be dismissed with immediate effect.

The board of the AfD parliamentary group decided on Monday.

The background for the decision were secretly recorded quotes from the 43-year-old, which now internally in the eyes of many MPs no longer considered acceptable.

As the "Zeit" reports, Lüth is behind an anonymized "AfD functionary" who speaks of "shooting" and "gassing" in connection with migrants in a TV documentary by ProSieben.

According to its own statements, "Zeit" clearly identified Lüth as this party official with the help of a data leak and several informants.

Before the meeting, co-parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland had reacted to the dpa news agency.

"The statements attributed to Mr. Lüth are completely unacceptable and in no way compatible with the goals and policies of the AfD and the AfD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag."

The claim that he "only talked to Lüth about these topics or that I even approved of the statements that were ascribed to Mr. Lüth to him is completely absurd and fictitious," he added.

Gauland said in an interview with SPIEGEL at the end of 2015: "Of course, we owe our resurgence primarily to the refugee crisis."

Secret recording

Lüth's statements - at that time still press spokesman for the parliamentary group - are said to have been made during an allegedly confidential meeting with a right-wing journalist in a bar in Berlin on February 23.

ProSieben had the encounter filmed with hidden cameras.

Lüth therefore stated, among other things:

• "We discussed that for a long time with Gauland: The worse things are in Germany, the better for the AfD (...) If everything went well now (...), the AfD would be three percent. We don't want to. That's why we have to get one Think about tactics. "

At one point during the meeting, Lüth's interlocutor asks "Zeit": 

• "Most of all, does it sound like it is in your interest that more migrants come?" 

Lüth then replies: 

• "Yes. Because then the AfD will be better. We can still shoot them all afterwards. That's not an issue at all. Or gas, or whatever you want. I don't care!"

The scene doesn't end there.

As the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ) and the "Berliner Morgenpost" reported on the film in advance on the weekend - without mentioning Lüth's name - the wording continued as follows:

"But now that the borders are still open, we have to make sure that as long as the AfD is still a bit unstable and a few idiots are anti-Semitic, we have to ensure that Germany is doing badly."

A spokesman for ProSieben told SPIEGEL on Monday that there were several ear-witnesses of the conversation between the YouTuber and the AfD functionary: "And these ear-witnesses have affirmed the content of the conversation in lieu of oath."

Lüth himself was confronted by SPIEGEL with the event in an SMS on Sunday evening, when the rumors about the broadcast were already circulating in the AfD - he has not yet responded to the request.

Christian Lüth made headlines in the spring when he was given leave of absence by co-parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland - whom he had also served as party spokesman for years.

Among other things, screenshots of an exchange of messages between Lüth and a woman appeared in which the spokesman at the time described himself as a "fascist" and referred to the "Aryan" descent of his alleged grandfather.

Lüth has a lot of knowledge from the AfD and had survived all personnel and direction changes in the AfD since 2013.

Until his leave of absence in the spring, he was regarded as a confidante of Gauland.

It was only in mid-September that the AfD parliamentary group announced that Lüth would "take on another task within the parliamentary group".

Shortly beforehand, SPIEGEL had reported that Lüth should be given the post of "media coordinator" in the press office - which, however, was noted with astonishment in parts of the parliamentary group.

The faction board responsible for this has not yet decided on the exact job description, it said.

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