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AfD politician Bernd Grimmer (2016)
Photo: Bernd Weißbrod / picture alliance / dpa
The Baden-Württemberg AfD politician Bernd Grimmer is dead. As a spokesman for the AfD district association Pforzheim-Enz confirmed, the member of the state parliament died of Covid-19.
The »Pforzheimer Zeitung« had previously reported.
Grimmer sat for the Pforzheim constituency in the Stuttgart state parliament.
“It was with great dismay that we learned that our esteemed member of the state parliament, Dr.
Bernd Grimmer has died «, it says in a message from the AfD state executive.
The regional group praised Grimmer as a "member of the first hour" and as a "competent economist".
Grimmer was chairman of his Pforzheim district association and, according to the party, won the direct mandate for his party for the first time in 2016.
According to the newspaper report, Grimmer died on Sunday night after a three-week illness.
In the past, the politician had repeatedly expressed himself critical of the measures to contain the corona pandemic and the reporting on the subject.
For example, Grimmer complained on his Facebook page in June 2020 that the media were "scaremongering".
As recently as August, he described the way Sweden was to deal with, which has only been using comparatively mild measures since the beginning of the pandemic, as "appropriate".
When asked, a spokesman for the district association confirmed that the AfD was still against compulsory vaccination against the virus.
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