[ad_1]
In the Lower Saxony state parliament there has recently been one less parliamentary group: President Dana Guth and MPs Stefan Wirtz and Jens Ahrends have left the AfD parliamentary group. To maintain status, seven more party representatives would be needed in the state parliament, but there are only six. Due to the loss of strength of the parliamentary group, the AfD will have fewer parliamentary rights in the future.
Guth had lost the state presidency in a battle vote in mid-September, against Jens Kestner, a representative of the officially dissolved “wing” classified as a right-wing extremist for constitutional protection. Guth’s decision to leave the faction deepens the division in the party.
Next Wednesday, the AfD federal executive in Berlin wants to talk about the situation in Lower Saxony. The honorary president of the AfD, Alexander Gauland, recently launched an exclusion procedure against Guth. The AfD is now “virtually incapable of parliamentary action in a major federal state” due to Guth’s “senseless demolition of the faction.”
Gauland said that anyone who threw everything out immediately after a defeat within the party could not fight them politically. Kestner agreed. In the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” he accused Guth of behavior detrimental to the party and supported demands for exclusion from the party.
Meuthen told SPIEGEL on Thursday that Guth’s actions, which led to the collapse of the Lower Saxony parliamentary group, were “unacceptable and will have consequences.” He did not want to join the demand for exclusion from the party. “The most important thing now is to do everything necessary to restore the status of a parliamentary group and to be able to continue the work in the state parliament as a parliamentary group.”
Co-chief Chrupalla at the crisis meeting in Hannover
Meuthen co-chair Tino Chrupalla was also active in the Guth case. “I was in Hannover today and spoke to the rest of the parliamentary group, both with the deputies and with the staff,” he told SPIEGEL on Thursday. It was also about protecting employees from unemployment and, if necessary, employing them in the parliamentary group where positions are still vacant.
Chrupalla said that he had started a special meeting of the federal board due to the events in Lower Saxony. “It is important for me to hear what happened again personally from everyone involved.” She asked the Lower Saxony AfD state executive to postpone the party’s regulatory measures against Guth, Wirtz and Ahrends and await debate in the federal executive.
The Bremen case as a model of sanctions?
Internally, in the Guth case, there is speculation in the AfD about lighter sanctions than exclusion from the party. Guth, who like her two comrades in arms, wants to remain in the AfD, could be suspended from her post.
The AfD was similar recently in AfD politician Frank Magnitz from Bremen case proceeded. The former head of state was sentenced by the competent Lower Saxony AfD regional arbitration court to a one-year suspension. Magnitz’s offense: he had refused to give up one of his two parliamentary seats, in the Bremen citizenship and in the Bundestag. In addition, the federal executive accused him of having blown up the parliamentary group in Bremen.
Like Guth, Magnitz left the AfD parliamentary group with two party colleagues in 2019, which meant they lost their status in Bremen citizenship.
The Magnitz case also shows how long the dispute over possible sanctions can drag on. Because the decision of the regional arbitration court is far from over: the 68-year-old has announced that he will take the decision to the AfD federal arbitration court.
