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Christian Blex, member of the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia
Photo: Christoph Hardt / imago images/Future Image
A trip by AfD officials to Russia last September caused further unrest within the party.
The state association of North Rhine-Westphalia is currently examining "party order measures" against two female members, as a spokesman said on request.
The women had accompanied the members of the state parliament Christian Blex (NRW), Hans-Thomas Tillschneider and Daniel Wald (both Saxony-Anhalt).
According to AfD, they were used as translators, but they do not work in the profession: Swetlana R. is an office clerk at a car workshop, Natalie V. runs a tantra massage studio with sexual services.
When asked, Natalie V. said she "simply speaks Russian" and likes to get involved in politics.
In fact, V. repeatedly demonstrates for the AfD.
On her YouTube channel, she called for the »MerKILL regime« to be overthrown.
Parties other than the AfD are "pathetic dirt".
Swetlana R. defended Russia at an AfD demo and explained that the media published what the "Federal Intelligence Service prescribes".
The travel and hotel costs were taken over by the parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt, confirms V. The parliamentary group does not want to comment, not even on why the two women from North Rhine-Westphalia were selected.
Earlier trips were also met with criticism
Because of the trip to Russia, the AfD had excluded Blex from the NRW state parliamentary group.
The reason given was that the parliamentary group rated his behavior as a "serious breach of trust" and saw "no basis for further cooperation".
But Blex is still a member of the state parliament.
Tillschneider and Wald continue to belong to the AfD parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt.
After the trip was sharply criticized, the group broke off the trip prematurely.
Other parties have accused MPs 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 met with a lack of understanding - the trip was also supposed to go to the Donbass.
AfD boss Alice Weidel described the trip as a "private trip" that "was not agreed with the party or with the parliamentary group".
According to their own statements, the AfD federal leadership was not informed about the trip and had distanced itself from it.
However, at least one member of the Bundestag should have been informed.
It wasn't Blex's first trip to draw criticism.
In 2018, he traveled with several other AfD politicians to Crimea, Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia, as well as to Syria.
akm/mba
