Bavaria - AfD leadership: state association should remove Halemba from party
The AfD party leadership is distancing itself from its Bavarian member of parliament Daniel Halemba. The 22-year-old is accused of incitement of the people, 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.
The party executive had discussed the Halemba case in Berlin on Monday evening. The public prosecutor's office in Würzburg 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.
No comment from Bavaria
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.
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.
"Sieg Heil" in the guestbook
According to the public prosecutor's office in Würzburg, a guest book was confiscated from the association'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 investigation against Daniel Halemba, the Bavarian AfD MP, is being conducted by the public prosecutor's office in Würzburg, Germany.
- The AfD party leadership in Berlin has requested the Bavarian state executive committee to initiate expulsion proceedings against Halemba due to allegations of incitement of the people.
- The Bavarian AfD state executive committee will discuss the Halemba case during their meeting on Thursday, following no immediate comment from Bavarian party leadership.
- The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been monitoring the Teutonia Prag fraternity, which Halemba is a member of, since December due to concerns about extremism.
- The fraternity's activities are considered a threat to the free democratic basic order based on evidence of right-wing extremist propaganda, music, and emblematic symbols.
- Daniel Halemba, a 22-year-old student from Würzburg, denies the accusations leveled against him, including the confiscated guestbook entry "Sieg Heil" with his signature.
- The AfD party in Bavaria has been also monitored by the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, with concerns raised, as a whole party, for supporting right-wing extremist movements like the Identitarian Movement.
Source: www.stern.de
