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The Thuringian AfD boss Björn Höcke with a mask
Photo: Martin Schutt / dpa
Other parties have postponed their party congresses or shifted them to digital, while the AfD wants to meet at the weekend in Kalkar, Lower Rhine.
According to the will of the party, the delegates should not have to wear mouth and nose protection in the hall.
That is why the AfD sued the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Administrative Court in Münster against the applicable hygiene requirements - and has now failed.
As the court announced, the judges justified their urgent decision with the legitimate purpose of "curbing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus."
The order is based on the basic assumption that the virus spreads particularly easily in direct personal contact by means of droplet infection or aerosols.
This order can not be contested.
Participants of the party congress who did not adhere to the requirements for wearing mouth and nose protection were to be excluded from the event, according to the court.
The AfD wants to hold its federal party conference with 600 delegates on November 28 and 29 in Kalkar.
The event was approved, but under strict hygiene requirements to prevent the coronavirus from spreading at the party congress.
AfD has developed its own hygiene concept
A rejection of the urgent action had already been expected in the AfD.
In Deutschlandfunk, co-party leader Jörg Meuthen defended the holding of a presence party conference with around 600 delegates on Friday.
In presence you can "discuss things very differently and work better together," he said.
All conceivable precautionary measures will be taken and the regulations will be observed in a disciplined manner.
There is, for example, a well thought-out ventilation concept.
In addition, the distance requirements would be observed and a mask requirement would apply everywhere, after a corresponding court order also at the site, he assured.
At the two-day party conference, the AfD wants to adopt its first pension concept since the party was founded seven years ago.
In addition, three posts in the federal executive committee must be re-elected, in addition to the federal treasurer and his deputy, the assessor post for the former AfD politician Andreas Kalbitz.
Its membership was canceled by the federal executive committee in May at the instigation of Meuthen.
There may be a fight vote for this post at the party congress: Member of the Bundestag Joana Cotar confirmed her willingness to run for office.
"I'll line up," she told SPIEGEL.
She wanted "the constructive forces in the party to work together."
Cotar is said to enjoy the support of the Meuthen camp.
As was also heard from the party leadership, the AfD MEP Maximilian Krah from Saxony is also to run for the observer post.
He belongs to the part of the AfD standing further to the right.
A confirmation of his candidacy could not be received from Krah at first.
»Meeting zone« planned for AfD members and media representatives
In addition to the 600 delegates on the exhibition grounds of the former Kalkar nuclear power plant, 170 seats are also reserved for journalists.
The AfD had already waived the originally planned 100 guests.
According to the AfD concept, the TV stations and their employees are to be housed in the hall with the delegates, and further media representatives in another hall.
An AfD spokesman told SPIEGEL that there should also be a "meeting zone" for talks between journalists and AfD delegates.
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mrc / sev / dpa
