The outrage was great among many Social Democrats: Now the joint vote of SPD city councilors in Hildburghausen with AfD city councilors should have consequences.
Erfurt/Hildburghausen (dpa/th) – After their joint vote with the AfD, a party order procedure was applied for against two SPD city councilors in Hildburghausen. “We clearly condemn the behavior of the SPD city councillors,” says a letter from several Social Democrats to the SPD state executive, which is available to the German Press Agency in Erfurt.
The joint vote with the AfD, which was observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia because of right-wing extremist tendencies, caused outrage not only within the SPD. It was about the initiation of a voting procedure against Hildburghausen’s mayor Tilo Kummer (left).
The application for a party order procedure against the two southern Thuringian SPD city councilors was submitted by, among others, the SPD state parliamentarians Diana Lehmann and Denny Möller and the East Thuringian federal parliamentarian Elisabeth Kaiser. It was submitted for the January 12 board meeting, they said.
The letter states that the fight against right-wing extremism and misanthropy are fundamental positions of social democracy. “Especially in Thuringia, with extremely high election results for the AfD, the dam bursting on February 5, 2020, a large number of right-wing rock concerts and an extensive network of right-wing structures, it is clear to us as the Social Democratic Party that there must be no form of cooperation with right-wing extremists – neither at the state nor at the municipal level.” Through a joint application and resolution of the SPD city councilors in Hildburghausen with the AfD, the applicants see “this principle clearly violated”. That must have consequences.
A party order procedure is conducted by the internal party arbitration board. It is about party penalties up to the party expulsion.
At the city council meeting in mid-December, all city councilors present and eligible to vote except for the six left-wing members voted to open the voting procedure. A two-thirds majority was required. The SPD deputies could have prevented the procedure.
