In the dispute over the party membership of the Brandenburg AfD-politician Andreas Kalbitz, there was on Tuesday a further twist to the. After a nearly four-hour meeting of the parliamentary group in Potsdam, Kalbitz, announced that he will leave his position as group Chairman as long rest until there is a decision of the land court of Berlin on its membership of the AfD. The Federal Board had cancelled Kalbitz‘ membership, the court of arbitration confirmed the AfD this decision. Kalbitz fight back in civil court.

Eckart Lohse

head of the Parliamentary office in Berlin.

F. A. Z. Twitter

he is accused to have a previous membership with the Republicans and the now-forbidden “homeland-faithful German youth” concealed. Kalbitz was like the Thuringian AfD-politician Björn Höcke a leading figure of the “wing”, the Constitution classified the protection of right-wing and now defunct flow in the AfD.

The AfD’s Federal Chairman Jörg Meuthen, no longer fighting to have Kalbitz in the party, said on Tuesday the decision in the Brandenburg state Parliament was “the right and makes it clear that Andreas Kalbitz may be, under the circumstances, the Chairman of the faction”.

The party was, until today, neither a request for temporary legal protection, a claim in the main proceedings, on the use of civil law from Kalbitz. As long as not in the main decision becomes final, applicable solely to the decision of the Federal Executive, which had been confirmed by the Federal court of arbitration “with a very clear majority of legally”. “Accordingly, Andreas Kalbitz may not be the Chairman of a AfD parliamentary group.”

the long duration of the session soon had made it clear that the matter was not so easy to decide. On the one hand, the AfD group in the Brandenburg Landtag so far behind your prominent Chairman, Kalbitz. It secures attention, and the means in an election mandates for the Brandenburg party friends. Therefore, they were not given way to him, at least open from the side. Whether each individual is in the future determined to follow Kalbitz to Bend and Break, it remains to be seen.

As the AfD Federal Executive had decided to Operate Meuthens in may to cancel the membership of Kalbitz, it had to submit first to the group’s presidency. The articles of Association of the group wrote at the time that the Chairman of the party must be a member. Hardly Kalbitz had to get a court confirms that only a decision of the Federal court of arbitration of the AfD could explain his membership null and void, was returned to the group chair immediately.