AfD struggles to expel right-winger Halemba from the party

Parties - AfD struggles to expel right-winger Halemba from the party

In the affair surrounding its member of state parliament Daniel Halemba, the AfD is struggling to have the 22-year-old from Lower Franconia expelled from the party. Following a request from the federal executive committee led by party leader Alice Weidel, the state executive committee is having legal proceedings examined. The first of presumably several lawyers has already been commissioned, Bavaria's AfD state leader Stephan Protschka told the German Press Agency on Friday.

At the heart of the matter is the accusation that Halemba has committed misconduct in the case of two applications for party membership. The two applications for admission to a district association in Lower Franconia may not have been lawful because the applicants may have lived elsewhere. According to Protschka, Halemba himself was then elected to first place on the electoral list for the state elections in the relevant party branch by a margin of three votes. It is not clear to what extent the two new members played a decisive role in this. The Federal Executive Board considers the admission of the members to be in breach of the articles of association. Halemba has not yet made a firm statement on the matter.

The public prosecutor's office in Würzburg is also investigating Halemba for incitement of the people and the use of symbols of anti-constitutional organizations. As a member of the Teutonia Prag fraternity in Würzburg, he is said to have signed a guest book entry with the words "Sieg Heil" and his name. The book was found during a police raid.

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 Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been officially monitoring the fraternity since the beginning of December. This also applies to the AfD as a party as a whole. However, the investigations by the public prosecutor's office are not officially part of the internal party investigations. Halemba rejects the accusations.

Halemba had resigned his party offices on Thursday evening shortly before a meeting of the state executive committee and is suspending his membership rights in the party. He intends to retain his seat in the state parliament. He could also remain a member of the AfD parliamentary group in the state parliament, parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner announced on Friday in response to a dpa inquiry.

CSU parliamentary group leader Klaus Holetschek is not satisfied with Halemba's consequences. "If he resigns his party offices, he has forgotten something crucial: his mandate in the state parliament. Given the seriousness of the allegations, he must resign immediately," said Holetschek on Thursday evening. AfD parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner must "take a clear stance here and must no longer remain silent".

"In order to prevent damage to the AfD, I am resigning from all party offices with immediate effect and will also refrain from exercising my membership rights within the AfD until further notice," the statement read. "I will face up to all allegations as part of a party disciplinary procedure and cooperate in the investigation. I am confident that all open questions will soon be clarified." The party offices he is resigning are the AfD district chairmanship in Würzburg and an office on the AfD district executive in Lower Franconia.

Also on Thursday evening, the AfD state executive decided to consider expulsion proceedings against Halemba. The state executive board unanimously decided that legal advisor Ferdinand Mang should commission a lawyer to "examine and, if necessary, prepare" the party expulsion proceedings against Halemba commissioned by the federal executive board, state chairman Stephan Protschka told the German Press Agency in Munich in the evening.

The state executive committee is thus not immediately complying with a corresponding request from the AfD federal executive committee to initiate proceedings, but is having this examined. If several lawyers unanimously come to the conclusion that an expulsion procedure has a chance of success, this will be initiated automatically, said state leader Protschka on Friday. Should there be conflicting opinions among the lawyers, the state executive committee would have to decide. The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for January 2.

The AfD federal executive board had also demanded that the state association should also apply to the responsible state arbitration court for Halemba to be immediately excluded from exercising his membership rights. The request had been made "to initiate expulsion proceedings against Mr. Halemba and to immediately revoke his membership rights", explained party and parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel in Berlin.

Should Halemba have to leave the party and parliamentary group, this would have an impact on the balance of power within the opposition in the state parliament. The AfD and the Greens currently have the same number of MPs. However, because the AfD finished just ahead of the Greens in terms of the percentage result in the state election, the AfD, as the strongest opposition party in percentage terms, is entitled to a number of special rights, such as the right of first reply to government statements. If the AfD were to shrink, the Greens would be the largest opposition group.