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Founding of the "wing": AfD members are threatened with exclusion

2021-06-16T23:27:50.592Z


At a secret meeting in Lower Saxony, AfD right-wingers are said to have decided to revive the disbanded "wing" network. The federal executive has now decided to take measures against three people affected.


Enlarge image

Lower Saxony AfD politicians (in the middle, ex-country chief Armin-Paul Hampel): Reports on a secret meeting

Photo: JENS SCHLUETER / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock

The national-ethnic network was actually dissolved last spring.

Officially, at least.

The "wing", recently classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as right-wing extremist, was headed for years by the Thuringian AfD politician Björn Höcke.

But shortly after Höcke's announcement, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution doubted the self-dissolution.

For example the authority in Kiel: The structures would continue to exist for their federal state, said the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution last year.

Now this suspicion could be confirmed - for the AfD in Lower Saxony.

Because three leading AfD representatives in Lower Saxony are threatened with exclusion from the party after reports of a revival of the "wing".

The AfD federal board dealt with the topic in a conference call on Monday.

According to information from participants, a majority voted in favor of requesting the expulsion of the three from the party.

They had tried to build new structures of the formally disbanded wing network in the party.

Specifically, it is about the Vice-State Head Stefan Bothe, the previous assessor in the State Board, Thorsten Althaus, and the Vice-State Head Uwe Wappler.

Unclear situation in the federal executive committee

Action against the three victims became apparent at the end of last week. The AfD co-federal chairman Jörg Meuthen said last Friday before a meeting of the federal leadership in Berlin: "As far as there is an attempt to build parallel structures, it is definitely unacceptable and damaging to the party."

It was unclear on Monday whether the three AfD members actually have to expect consequences. For some participants in the federal executive there are doubts as to whether the required two-thirds majority in the vote on the three party exclusion procedures was sufficient in each case. This is currently still being checked, it said. The incident was confirmed to SPIEGEL in the early evening. If the majority is recognized, those affected can defend themselves against being expelled before an arbitration tribunal of the party. The conflict falls into a power struggle between the so-called moderate and right-wing AfD camp in Lower Saxony. According to information from SPIEGEL, four members of the AfD federal executive voted against the exclusion proceedings against the three state politicians concerned: Co-party leader Tino Chrupalla,the two vice-chairmen Stephan Brandner and Alice Weidel as well as the assessor Stephan Protschka. You are one of Meuthen's opponents on the board.

Vice head of state defends himself

The deputy AfD state chairman Stefan Bothe does not want to accept the exclusion proceedings against him.

At the meeting on February 20 in Verden an der Aller, of which a sound recording and minutes leaked out, it was not about reviving the "wing".

Rather, it was a private supporters' meeting, explained Bothe, who is also a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament, on Monday.

He reported that, contrary to the knowledge of the participants, a recording had been made.

The real background to the meeting was the enormous pressure that weighed on the state executive after the assembly meeting for the federal election in December, said Bothe. After right-wing forces were initially elected to head the AfD regional association in late summer, moderate forces were able to prevail for the list for the federal election.

Joachim Wundrak, former lieutenant general of the Bundeswehr and supporter of AfD co-boss Jörg Meuthen, was voted number one on the list.

Since then, with reference to possible formal errors, the state executive has tried to enforce a repetition of the list.

A new assembly meeting will now be organized in the near future, the AfD state executive announced on Monday.

Previously, at the end of last week, the AfD federal executive asked the Lower Saxony state executive to re-elect the state list for the federal election in close coordination with the federal office.

The publication of the recording by NDR and WDR has already led to the first personnel consequences.

Althaus resigned as an assessor in the state executive on Friday after the allegations became known.

AfD politician Hampel was among the participants

According to the report by NDR and WDR, the three-hour recordings of the meeting on February 20, 2021 in Verden an der Aller were leaked to the broadcasters by a party member who had smuggled into the event to find out what was going to be planned there.

The participants also included the former AfD state chairman Armin-Paul Hampel. When asked, the member of the Bundestag emphasized that he had never been a member of the "wing". He took part in the event in Verden, but it was a "grassroots motivation meeting". "It was by no means a revival of the› wing ‹, but rather the motivation of the basis for upcoming internal party positioning issues," said Hampel to the NDR. Only one member regretted the dissolution of the "wing" in his speech and advocated its revival. According to the recordings, Hampel was appointed regional coordinator for Uelzen at the meeting. He didn't want to confirm that, however.

In a recording of the meeting, NDR and WDR extensively quoted Thorsten Althaus, who was then assessor in the state board, as follows: “These structures that we have just set up completely bypass the KV boards (district boards - the editor) 100 percent.

These are now elected representatives of the patriotic camp who are networking there.

If possible, the KV board should not notice anything, as it were completely under the radar. "

sev / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-06-16

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