About the former Brandenburg AfD head of state Andreas Kalbitz there is a lot of discussion in the AfD. Now he is resting his office as parliamentary group leader for the time being. First of all, a first legal clarification should be awaited by the Berlin Regional Court, Kalbitz said on Tuesday. The chairman of the parliamentary group, Alexander Gauland, responded positively.
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Gauland told the dpa news agency that the Brandenburg parliamentary group’s decision regarding the future role of their previous parliamentary leader was wise and balanced. “I think it is a success for Andreas Kalbitz because the proposal he made was unanimously accepted.”
The AfD parliamentary group in Potsdam had decided on Tuesday in a meeting in which Gauland took part as a guest that Kalbitz took up his post as parliamentary group leader will rest in the state parliament for the time being. The background is the cancellation of his membership by the Federal Executive Board in May, against which Kalbitz wants to legally defend himself. With their decision, the parliamentary group followed Kalbitz’s proposal.
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The AfD federal executive had cited the reason for the cancellation of party membership that Kalbitz had not given earlier membership in the now banned right-wing extremist “Heimattreuen Deutsche Jugend” (HDJ) and the Republicans when joining the party. Kalbitz denies membership in the HDJ. The Federal Arbitration Court of the AfD approved the board at the end of July.
Gauland defends itself against criticism
Gauland, who is the honorary chairman of the AfD, then questioned the independence of the Federal Arbitration Court. He made it clear that in this case he would “only follow the decisions and judgments of the ordinary judiciary”. “Because the Federal Arbitration Court is obviously about certain political interests, which shouldn’t have anything to do here,” he said in an interview. The referees and several country leaders reacted indignantly to his statement.
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Gauland was now defending himself. He said: “The decision of an arbitral tribunal may be publicly criticized.” Finally, several leading AfD politicians expressed criticism last year of the decision of the AfD state arbitration court in Schleswig-Holstein not to exclude Doris von Sayn-Wittgenstein from the party. Hardly anyone bothered about that at the time.
AfD boss too Jörg Meuthen is satisfied with the decision about Kalbitz’s future role. “I am pleased that the Brandenburg parliamentary group has decided that Andreas Kalbitz will no longer hold the group chairmanship until further notice. I think it is good news that it was unanimously approved,” he said in an interview with “Cicero”.
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However, Meuthen does not believe that the party-internal dispute has now been resolved and the “wing”, which is classified as an extreme right, is withdrawing: “Of course, we and I personally have had headwinds from people who disagree with our decisions. This headwind is not going to happen now to a warm breeze. “
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