AfD leadership: state association should remove Halemba from party
Berlin/Munich (dpa) - The AfD party leadership is distancing itself from its Bavarian member of parliament Daniel Halemba. The 22-year-old is accused of incitement to hatred, among other things. A party spokesperson announced on Tuesday that the federal executive committee had asked the Bavarian AfD state executive committee to initiate expulsion proceedings against Halemba.
This was justified on the one hand with violations of the party's rules, which had led to the admission of members in breach of the party's statutes in the run-up to two constituency meetings for the state elections in Bavaria. In addition, the "information available to date from the investigation by the Würzburg public prosecutor's office, including the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations in the fraternity house of the "Prager Burschenschaft Teutonia zu Würzburg"" was cited.
The party executive discussed the Halemba case in Berlin on Monday evening. The Würzburg public prosecutor's office is investigating the MP for incitement of the people and the use of symbols of anti-constitutional organizations. The 22-year-old student, who last lived in Würzburg, rejects the accusations. Halemba initially refused to comment on the party executive's decision on Tuesday.
The state executive of the AfD in Bavaria initially did not wish to comment on the request from Berlin. When asked, its chairman Stephan Protschka merely stated that the issue was on the agenda for the state executive committee meeting on Thursday.
Guest book confiscated
Last week, it became known that the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been monitoring the Teutonia Prag fraternity in Würzburg, of which Halemba is a member, since the beginning of December. This also applies to the AfD as a whole party in Bavaria.
According to the public prosecutor's office in Würzburg, a guest book was confiscated from the fraternity's house during a raid in September. It contained the entry "Sieg Heil", signed with Halemba's name. In the room occupied by the 22-year-old, a printout of an SS order issued by SS chief Heinrich Himmler in October 1939 with a so-called double sigrune was discovered.
"The activitas of the Teutonia Prag fraternity in Würzburg is an object of observation by the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution," the Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced. There are sufficiently strong indications that the activities of the fraternity are directed against the free democratic basic order, it said.
The fraternity had stored propaganda material from the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement on its premises. In doing so, it had emphatically supported the right-wing extremist efforts of this movement. In addition, right-wing extremist music had been played in the fraternity house.
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The AfD's national association should seriously consider initiating expulsion proceedings against Halemba, given his associations with right-wing extremist groups, as highlighted by the Würzburg public prosecutor's investigation and the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution's monitoring of the Teutonia Prag fraternity, of which Halemba is a member. This action could help uphold the party's stance against extremism and align with the democratic values it claims to uphold, as criticized by the AfD party leadership.
The Bavarian AfD state executive committee's delay in responding to the national party's request to initiate expulsion proceedings against Halemba, despite the significant evidence of his extremist affiliations, raises questions about their commitment to combatting extremism within their own ranks and aligning with the party's stated democratic values.
Source: www.ntv.de
