Schleswig-Holstein: AfD loses its third parliamentary group

reThe strength of the AfD is demonstrated, among other things, by the fact that it is represented in all state parliaments. And the weakness of the AfD can be seen, among other things, in the fact that its MPs can no longer form a parliamentary group in three of these parliaments due to personal differences and political radicalization. After Bremen and Lower Saxony, this also happened in Schleswig-Holstein on Friday.

In the Kiel state parliament at noon, MP Frank Brodehl announced his departure from the AfD and his parliamentary group. The party only has three deputies there, and that’s too few to form a parliamentary group. With the exception of the Danish minority representation, the South Schleswig Voters Association, the minimum number for a parliamentary group in Schleswig-Holstein is four. The AfD no longer reaches this number, so its parliamentarians now also lack the funds that are made available to parliamentary groups for their work.

These conditions have existed in Bremen for more than a year. There, the AfD parliamentarians separated a few months after the general elections in May 2019, splitting into two small groups and thus depriving themselves of the numerical possibility of forming factions. A few days ago, three MPs from Lower Saxony, including the recently elected state president Dana Guth, announced their departure from the AfD parliamentary group in the Hannover state parliament, where the remaining members of the party’s parliamentary group now also lack mass and funds.

This breakdown of the Lower Saxony faction has mainly political reasons. Because Guth and the other two resigned MPs, who apparently want to remain in the party, count internally among the opponents of the nationalist party flow from the officially dissolved AfD wing around the Thuringian head of state, Björn Höcke.

The supporters of this trend, described by the constitution as right-wing extremists, had celebrated a spectacular triumph in Lower Saxony two weeks ago. Guth was ousted from office at a state party conference in Braunschweig and was replaced as state president by Jens Kestner, a member of the Bundestag, who was located in the wing camp.

Uwe Wappler, who once emailed a “bustard hunt” to an internal party opponent with a final “rabbit catch,” landed a vice position. Andreas Iloff, about whom a spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution said in 2017 that Iloff was “known for his far-right activities”, was also elected to the state executive. Most of the other seats on the board have also been elected to politicians who espouse radical lines. After they have now managed to advance in the Lower Saxony state party, the Guth members apparently no longer see any prospect for themselves in the state parliamentary group.

Reasons for leaving Schleswig-Holstein

In Schleswig-Holstein, 49-year-old local MP Brodehl explicitly justifies his resignation with events in the northern regional association: “Völkisch-nationalist forces have actually increased while bourgeois-conservative members leave the party,” he said. Brodehl WELT. Because he considers the development in Schleswig-Holstein to be “irreversible”, he is now leaving the AfD.

In fact, radical right-wing forces are very strong in the Northern AfD. This became particularly clear in June 2019: Doris von Sayn-Wittgenstein was re-elected as president of the state, although at the time a party expulsion proceeding was ongoing against her due to her announcement of a far-right association co-founded by Holocaust deniers.

According to Brodehl, “nothing has changed” in the majority proportions that Sayn-Wittgenstein, who has meanwhile been excluded from the party and is now part of the state parliament, benefited from when she was re-elected in June 2019. She felt it personally in May 2020. The current acting state executive sent a letter in which Sayn-Wittgenstein, who is no longer part of the party, massively attacked Brodehl, as an “important message” for all AfD members in Schleswig-Holstein.

In general, according to Brodehl, “the nationalist völkisch members” have “prevailed” in the relevant State party bodies, where they would “increasingly” determine the content. The state executive, which has not had an elected president since Sayn-Wittgenstein was ousted, sent an “opinion” from an internal technical committee to all members in August.

According to Brodehl, “it speaks of a ‘system that currently governs Germany’ that is currently waging a ‘war against its own people.’ Brodehl continues: “This image of our free democracy is now considered an acceptable opinion within the AfD Schleswig-Holstein. That says everything. “

Within the parliamentary group, however, Brodehl does not see the Volkish as a majority. The leader of the parliamentary group Jörg Nobis and his deputy Claus Schaffer “would not even remotely share the ideas of the wing.” On the other hand, it is different with the director of the parliamentary group Volker Schnurrbusch. According to Brodehl, Schnurrbusch shows that “Sayn-Wittgenstein’s influence now extends to the parliamentary group.”

Because Schnurrbusch, according to Brodehl, has “repeatedly made it clear that he believes the demarcation with the grand piano is wrong.” When the parliamentary group in late 2018 threw out Sayn-Wittgenstein after the WELT report on his publicity for the far-right association, Schnurrbusch had “done everything possible to prevent Sayn-Wittgenstein from being excluded from the parliamentary group,” says Brodehl. This shows for him “that the dividing line between the moderate members of the AfD and the wing also runs through the parliamentary group.”

In these circumstances, he saw “no more basis for further cooperation with the parliamentary group,” Brodehl said. He could “as a conservative of freedom, neither in the parliamentary group nor in the state association AfD Schleswig-Holstein continue to have a political home.”