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The choice of Kalbitz’s successor in the Brandenburg AfD parliamentary group has little to do with the political feud in the party. At the federal level, the old “wing” forces are increasingly fighting for influence.
An analysis by Martin Schmidt, ARD capital studio
The last months of the AfD parliamentary group in Brandenburg were painful and exhausting, says Hans-Christoph Berndt at his first press conference as its new boss. Your most important task now is to create cohesion and allow wounds to heal.
He is probably not referring to the only injury suffered by Dennis Hohloch, one of his fellow candidates for the presidency of the parliamentary group. Andreas Kalbitz, a former leader of the right-wing extremist wing of the AfD, suffered a ruptured spleen in August with a violent blow to the side.
Although this is said to have happened unintentionally, it still spelled his final end as leader of the parliamentary group in Brandenburg. The fact that he had previously lost his affiliation with the AfD due to his biography as a right-wing extremist was not enough to make this decision.
President of the association “Zukunft Heimat”
It is therefore not surprising that in this group one right-wing extremist is followed by the next. Because 64-year-old Berndt not only heads the AfD parliamentarians in Brandenburg, he is also the president of the “Zukunft Heimat” association. The association organizes demonstrations against the influx of refugees and other foreigners and is classified as a right-wing extremist by the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
According to “Spiegel”, the state authority also assumes that Berndt is using his mandate and the office of the Islamophobic association aggressively to spread his extremist agenda.
The choice of Kalbitz’s successor makes clear once again that Brandenburg was never about the leadership dispute that is still raging in the federal party, between the right-wing extremist “wing” and those who describe themselves as moderate.
Two opposing candidates
Berndt had two opponents in the morning: Dennis Hohloch and Birgit Bessin. Both are firmly rooted in the old “wing” structures and are among Kalbitz’s closest confidants in Brandenburg. And Berndt also seems to have the “wing” blessing. His best-known face, Björn Höcke, announced even before Berndt was elected that he would perform with him on Friday at a demonstration of his association “Zukunft Heimat” in Cottbus.
“We won more than 23 percent of the voters for our policy in Brandenburg,” explains Daniel Freiherr von Lützow, Member of the State Parliament and State Vice President of the AfD. “We want continuity for our practical work, which is obviously well received, we never argue about that.”
If you continue to listen in the parliamentary group, some will complain about Kalbitz’s overbearing and authoritarian leadership style, his sometimes aggressive demeanor, but not his political convictions. This is how the dispute in Brandenburg unfolded between those who wanted a strong Kalbitz at the top of the parliamentary group and those who eventually hoped to have more voice, for some of them fueled by the idea of being able to rise to a leadership position themselves.
By the way, the AfD parliamentary group will not completely separate from Kalbitz; you can remain their member without being in the party.
Election at the end of November
And Kalbitz absolutely wants to go back to the AfD: even if he failed with an urgent request for the first time, Kalbitz wants to continue suing the Berlin Regional Court against his expulsion.
However, his seat on the federal board will be reassigned. At the party congress in late November, the AfD wants to elect a new adviser to him and fill the currently vacant post of Federal Treasurer. There are several contenders, but even in the match some are surprised that no open dispute has arisen over these two positions.
Because with these elections, the majority of co-federal spokesman Jörg Meuthen on the 14-member federal board could be reduced. Meuthen had played a key role in pushing for the Kalbitz eviction.
Some of his internal party opponents have been spreading rumors that Meuthen’s so-called group of 8 would collapse for a long time anyway, a 7-7 vote in the federal executive committee is conceivable through successful congressional elections. of the party: the old forces of the “wing” that finally returned to being strong in the executive committee.
But this hope disappears every day for an entirely different reason: the number of corona infections continues to rise. Even if they really want to meet for the party congress, many in the AfD have long assumed that their First Advent meeting could still be canceled due to new conditions.
