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AFD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla
Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker
After sharp criticism, three AfD members of parliament break off their trip to Russia and Donbass in Ukraine.
"Mr. (Christian) Blex was not in the Donbass and will end the trip," said a spokeswoman for the AfD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia of the German Press Agency (dpa) in the evening.
According to a party spokesman in Berlin, Blex wrote to the federal executive via email that all three MPs had decided "not to travel any further to the Donbass".
Blex is traveling with two members of the state parliament from Saxony-Anhalt, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider and Daniel Wald.
The trip by the three AfD members of the state parliament has caused a great deal of misunderstanding since Monday.
Representatives of other parties accused the AfD of siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There was also a shake of the head within the AfD.
Above all, the planned visit to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine was criticized.
According to their own statements, the AfD party leadership was not privy to the trip and distanced itself from it.
"We do not support this trip," said co-party and faction leader Tino Chrupalla in Berlin.
Co-party leader Alice Weidel spoke of a "private trip" that had not been agreed with the parliamentary group and party.
“The travel activity does not represent the position of the AfD either.” This will be worked on internally.
Blex previously wrote on Facebook that he had left for the Russian Federation with his party friends Tillschneider and Wald.
"On this trip we will get our own undistorted picture of the situation in the Donbass." He accused the "German pro-government media" of reporting "highly one-sidedly and incompletely" on the humanitarian situation of the people in the Donbass region.
The outgoing Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, accused the AfD politicians on Twitter of "supporting the Russian war of annihilation" with the planned visit to the Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine.
Bundestag politicians from other parties sharply attacked the AfD.
"All of this shows which side the AfD is on - on Putin's side," said the parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast.
»Such trips are exploited by Putin's propaganda machine and massively damage Germany's reputation and interests.
Damaging Germany is the aim of the AfD.
That was, is and will remain so.«
"If you still need proof of whose side #noAfD is on - here it is," wrote Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens) on Twitter.
The deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Konstantin Kuhle tweeted: "When AfD MPs travel to Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine to witness illegal referendums on the annexation of Russia, this is not a private trip, but the latest act of the AfD, which has been working well for both sides for years -Putin pact.«
czl/dpa
