The Brandenburg AfD parliamentary group took two months to look for a successor after the quarrels about Andreas Kalbitz, who was excluded from the party.
Two months after the resignation of
Andreas Kalbitz
, the Brandenburg AfD parliamentary group elected
Hans-Christoph Berndt
as its
new
chairman
.
The group announced this on Tuesday.
Berndt succeeds Kalbitz, who resigned after being kicked out of the party in August.
The party's executive board revoked Kalbitz's membership in May because it
is said to have concealed
contacts with the
right-wing extremist milieu
.
The deputy parliamentary group leader Birgit Bessin, the parliamentary managing director Dennis Hohloch and the AfD member of the state parliament Hans-Christoph Berndt had applied for
the chairmanship in a
battle vote
.
After Andreas Kalbitz resigns: Hans-Christoph Berndt is the new AfD chairman in Brandenburg
Berndt heads the “Zukunft Heimat” association, which is
classified as right-wing extremist by
the Office for the
Protection of the Constitution
.
Berndt is also a
"proven right-wing extremist", said Jörg Müller, the head of the state constitutional protection.
Müller had also called Kalbitz a "proven right-wing extremist".
The AfD federal executive had revoked Kalbitz's membership in May because he
is said to have concealed
earlier memberships with the right-wing extremist
home
-
loyal German youth
(HDJ) and the
republicans
when he was accepted.
In August he was unsuccessful in an urgent application against the expulsion before the Berlin Regional Court.
Shortly before, Kalbitz had withdrawn from the parliamentary group chairmanship, which he initially only wanted to let rest until the court decision
(dpa)
.
