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AfD co-boss Jörg Meuthen
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
In the internal power struggle of the AfD, the co-chairman Jörg Meuthen suffered a defeat.
Against Meuthen's will, the NRW deputy Matthias Helferich, who has come under pressure due to a Nazi affair, is allowed to remain in the party.
A majority of the federal executive spoke out against the initiation of party exclusion proceedings on Monday.
The 33-year-old lawyer Helferich described himself in private chats in 2016/17 as "the friendly face of the ns" - ns stands for National Socialism.
He also spoke of himself as a "democratic freeman".
As President of the People's Court, Freisler was responsible for over 2,000 death sentences during the Nazi era.
Helferich later tried to relativize his statements as parody.
Nevertheless, only recently had six members of the federal executive voted for an expulsion procedure at the request of Meuthen, six abstained.
The two-thirds majority required for this had not been achieved, but there were doubts as to whether the abstentions should have been counted.
On Monday, these uncertainties were cleared up by a renewed vote - but not in the interests of Meuthen. His internal party opponent and co-party leader Tino Chrupalla, with the support of the previous Meuthen supporter Beatrix von Storch, brought a motion against Helferich's exclusion process with eight to six votes. In addition to Chrupalla and von Storch, Alice Weidel, Stephan Brandner, Joachim Paul, Jochen Haug, Alexander Wolf and Carsten Hütter voted against the initiation of an exclusion process, as SPIEGEL learned. Meuthen and another five board members on the committee voted against.
In addition, the board of directors voted again on the suspension of office that had already been unanimously requested: eleven board members voted in favor, this time Meuthen, Joachim Kuhs and Sylvia Limmer against. In response to a request from SPIEGEL, Meuthen stated that he considered a suspension of office in this case to be the "wrong sanction" and that he did not want this to be understood as the unanimous will of the board of directors. The specific suspension of office against Helferich still has to be confirmed by the AfD Federal Arbitration Court, the party judges should also determine the time scope and the start of the measure.
In a press conference in which the AfD top duo Weidel and Chrupalla actually presented central messages from the party's federal election campaign on Monday, the Helferich case was also the focus. Chrupalla defended his course. “I do not share his statements in any way,” said the AfD co-boss, but Helferich wrote them in a “purely private chat” in “exaggerated tenor” and as a parody.
"I also give such people a second chance," said Chrupalla of Helferich.
Weidel spoke of a case that was "very unfortunate" and "should have been solved long ago in North Rhine-Westphalia", which the federal executive board had to deal with now "unfortunately".
She referred to Helferich's "private" chat statements.
If the AfD state vice had this "publicly expressed, then the case would have been completely different," said the AfD parliamentary group leader and party vice.
Election campaign focuses on corona and migration
For the election campaign, which the top duo Weidel and Chrupalla begins on Tuesday in Schwerin, three main areas of focus of the AfD are emerging, which the party summarized under the catchwords »freedom, prosperity, migration«.
Weidel, who does not want to be vaccinated for the "foreseeable future" (in contrast to the AfD politicians Alexander Gauland and Meuthen, who have already been vaccinated), accused the federal government of putting pressure on people who have not been vaccinated, although compulsory vaccination violates the Basic Law.
She warned of a "two-class society" and a "lockdown for the unvaccinated" after the federal election.
Vaccination must remain a voluntary decision.
Chrupalla - who left it open whether he was vaccinated ("My family doctor knows, and that's where it belongs") - called for a "cash fall" after the federal election in the area of spending.
The AfD sees savings opportunities in particular in the area of migration, in spending for the European Union and in turning away from a "failed energy transition".
Weidel also introduced a new catchphrase for the AfD election campaign: If Meuthen had once complained about a "left-wing green silted republic", Weidel now said that Germany had become a "hippy state". When asked what that meant, the AfD top candidate replied: a state "in which the police close their eyes" and in which there are legal vacancies.
