Status: 16.01.2024, 12:15 p.m.
By: Marcus Mäckler
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At its party conference, Bavaria's AfD is sending out contrary signals: scandal MP Halemba is to give up his mandate – but the nationalist wing is stronger than ever.
Munich – Daniel Halemba is not there when the verdict is handed down. He is truant, letting it be known that he is not exercising his membership rights at the moment anyway. That's why he didn't even arrive, at least that's what AfD leader Stephan Protschka says, who claims to have spoken to the 22-year-old on the phone the evening before.
Maybe it's better that way. Because the majority of the 800 who came to Greding on Saturday have had enough of Halemba. It is almost 16 p.m. when the party congress calls on the young member of the state parliament to resign his mandate immediately. A motion by 160 party members clearly passes: 57.6 percent vote in favor, 42.4 against. This is clearer than many thought.
Halemba doesn't have to stick to that. But the pressure on him and the parliamentary group to draw consequences has grown significantly.
Halemba is the defining theme of the party congress. This is already shown by the number of those who have come to Greding – sometimes there are only half as many. The debate about the hard-right fraternity member has mobilized people, it is said here.
Stephan Protschka, re-elected state chairman of the AfD Bavaria, is cheered by party members for re-election at the state party congress in the Hippodrome. © Daniel Löb/dpa
Because of Halemba, the shreds fly at the AfD party conference
And how. Already around noon the shreds are flying because of him. There is the question of whether he and the allegations that are in the room should be debated at all – and whether the media should be sent out as a precaution. It's also unpleasant. Halemba is said to have cheated in drawing up lists in his district association, and the public prosecutor's office is also investigating him for incitement to hatred.
After all, the debate remains public – and it becomes emotional. The case fills his files, says Klaus Uwe Junker, Aschaffenburg district chairman and one of the initiators of the aforementioned application. "If Halemba had resigned like a man, there would be no need for this motion." Many in the hall clap, others boo their throats out.
Junker also attacks the board of directors head-on. He acts in the matter "according to the principle of the three monkeys: see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing". Another calls Protschka a "total failure".
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Dispute over Halemba shows cracks within the Bavarian AfD
The controversy over the young MP is also interesting because it marks the internal rift that the party has recently concealed quite well. Halemba's critics are comparatively moderate AfD members, while the defenders come from the völkisch camp.
For Protschka and Co., the vote is a defeat, for a short time it seems as if this could also have an impact on the election of the new board. Andreas Winhart, a member of the state parliament and a moderate, is challenging the incumbent, who is close to the "wing". He wants to communicate better, says the Rosenheim native in his speech. The aim is to achieve "opinion leadership at the regulars' tables, in the media and in the beer tents".
Protschka, meanwhile, lashes out at Markus Söder, whom he wants to "teach fear". And, of course, against the traffic light, which is on the "socialist advance". In Bavaria, he shouts, 20 percent are possible for the AfD in the next federal election. "Then we'll take our land back." This works, Protschka wins with 58.27 percent clearly against Winhart (39.24).
AfD Vice-President Böhm: Damaging Aigner is "legitimate"
Bavaria's deputy AfD leader Martin Böhm has admitted that his party wants to cause political damage to state parliament president Ilse Aigner. That's why, at the end of 2023, it was considered to stage the "inevitable arrest" of MP Daniel Halemba, who is wanted by arrest warrant, in a public-facing way. "The idea of continuing to work on the de-legitimization of Aigner by arresting H. at the entrance to the plenary chamber and having an even more polarizing effect on the citizens was at least charming," Böhm wrote in an email to AfD members. Damaging Aigner is a "legitimate political goal". CSU parliamentary group leader Klaus Holetschek spoke of a "repulsive attack". The AfD wants to delegitimize the constitutional organs. "They are enemies of parliament, enemies of the constitution, enemies of democracy." SPD parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn also backed Aigner and called for an AfD ban to be examined. In a reaction of the state parliament, there is talk of a "revealing derailment". Aigner will "continue to do everything that is required by the rule of law to unmask the enemies of our free democratic basic order."
AfD party conference in Greding: "The wing network has worked again"
"The wing network has worked again," says the Rosenheim native afterwards. It was a "pure block election". You can see this in the entire new state board: Gerd Mannes, the top vote-getter in the state election and the last moderate in the team until Saturday, will not be re-elected as deputy. All relevant posts are now occupied by "wing" people.
This could also be beneficial for Halemba. Before the party congress, the old executive committee imposed a two-year ban on him. However, there is no exclusion procedure, which the federal leadership had demanded. According to Prochka, such a procedure is "definitely not off the table". Depending on the outcome of the investigations for incitement to hatred, it could be "the next step".
His deputy Martin Böhm, also deputy leader of the parliamentary group, sees it differently. "We have to give the rabbits in the parliaments the deserved blow to the necks and not our own party comrades," he shouts at one point into the simmering hall. Internally, it is believed that Halemba also wants to keep his mandate. Winhart: "The ball is now in the court of parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner."