Munich (dpa / lby) – A year before the state elections, the long-term power struggle in the Bavarian AfD state parliamentary group broke out again. The group of MPs, which is currently the parliamentary group executive committee, and the camp around the former chairmen Katrin Ebner-Steiner and Ingo Hahn are arguing about a possible by-election for the post of co-chairman, which has been vacant since March.
According to information from faction circles, the latter group failed on Tuesday to push through an election after a first attempt at the faction retreat last week. The incumbent board reportedly rejected the request with reference to the articles of association. A subsequent vote on the agenda of the parliamentary group meeting ended with a stalemate of eight to eight.
The majority within the parliamentary group, through which a deep rift has drawn since entering the state parliament in 2018, had shifted again and again. When the more moderate camp had the majority after several faction exits, it finally exchanged the entire faction board around Ebner-Steiner and Hahn. Ebner-Steiner is attributed to the officially dissolved “wing” and is considered a confidant of AfD right-winger Björn Höcke.
The faction has since shrunk even further: After two more resignations – including the faction leader Christian Klingen – there were only 16 members. A replacement for a deputy who died later gave the camp around Ebner-Steiner a narrow majority of nine to eight votes. But since Klingen’s exit, Ulrich Singer has been the sole leader of the parliamentary group.
The incumbent board is now reportedly arguing that the vacant post of deputy parliamentary manager must be filled because it is specifically mentioned in the statutes of the parliamentary group. “The parliamentary group executive consists of the parliamentary group leader, up to two deputy parliamentary group leaders, the parliamentary manager and the deputy parliamentary manager,” it says. According to this, the group executive committee may not “exceed 1/3 the majority of the group members” – i.e. only have five members in view of the shrunken group. As a result, the post of co-chairman cannot be filled.
The camp around Ebner-Steiner, on the other hand, is said to insist on electing the post of co-chairman – which the incumbent board rejects because this is not possible according to the statutes. Whether and how the power struggle could be resolved was open on Tuesday.
