Berlin/Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – The International Auschwitz Committee is calling for a public statement on the return of ex-AfD politician and former member of the state parliament Mario Lehmann to the police service in Saxony-Anhalt. Christoph Heubner, Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, announced in Berlin on Saturday that it was time for the Minister of the Interior to make a statement. A spokeswoman for the interior minister announced on June 1 that Lehmann would be employed as an officer in the police clothing service center. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” had previously reported on it.
Heubner explained that a debate as to whether a personality who had become known through prejudice and right-wing extremist aggression should actually be granted the right to return to one of the most sensitive areas of state activity was not permitted by the Minister, either in the political or in the public sphere. Lehmann has every opportunity within the police to get his poisoned views among his colleagues. According to the party, the former member of parliament Lehmann left the AfD on December 31, 2020.
A spokeswoman for Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang (CDU) rejected the allegations on Saturday. At the same time, she referred to the legal situation. For example, a superior cannot initiate disciplinary proceedings for events that occur during a period in which the rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship as a civil servant are suspended. That was the case when Lehmann was a member of parliament, emphasized the ministry spokeswoman. Statements that he made in the past in the state parliament cannot be followed against this background, as the spokeswoman for the ministry said.
Lehmann had repeatedly caused a stir with his statements, including in the state parliament. According to media reports, in 2017, among other things, he denigrated refugees as “Ficki-Ficki specialists”. He also accused the other parties in the state parliament of having “blood on their hands politically and symbolically” with regard to crime by refugees. Several deputies then left the plenary hall indignantly.
