After a long time without elected leadership, the Brandenburg AfD wanted to elect a new chair at the weekend. But the 2G rule in hotels leads to the cancellation of the planned party congress – many members are apparently not vaccinated against Corona.
In view of the stricter corona rules, the Brandenburg AfD canceled its planned party conference on November 20 and 21 in Prenzlau (Uckermark). This decision was made by the state board after a long debate about the 2G rule for hotels and pensions, said Vice-state chief Daniel Freiherr von Lützow of the German press agency on Monday.
According to the 2G rule, only vaccinated and convalescent people are allowed to stay in hotels and pensions. “That would have caused big problems for a large part of our members at a two-day party congress,” said von Lützow. Because according to his assessment, significantly more than half of the party members are not vaccinated. “And these would have to leave for hours depending on where they live and arrive again the next day,” explained Lützow. Therefore, it was decided to cancel for legal reasons.
All members have access to the party congresses of the AfD and can decide.
At the now canceled party congress, a new state chairmanship should be elected. This post has been vacant since Andreas Kalbitz’s party membership was lifted by the Federal Arbitration Court last year. Vice-state chief Birgit Bessin and AfD member of the Bundestag René Springer have applied for the office.
Springer regretted the decision of the state executive. “It would have been better to use at least Saturday to elect a new state executive,” said Springer. After the election, the general assembly could have ended the party congress, then, according to Springer, the problem of hotel accommodation for the unvaccinated members would not have arisen. Unfortunately, the state executive did not respond to a corresponding proposal from him, the AfD member of the state parliament Steffen Kubitzki and AfD parliamentary group leader Christoph Berndt, it said.
Kubitzki was also disappointed by the renewed cancellation of the election party congress, which was originally supposed to take place in the spring. “Now speculation is starting again among the members: Did they really cancel because of 2G or because they were afraid of losing,” said Kubitzki. In his opinion, the state executive should have called the party congress much earlier in the warm season. “It was foreseeable that the number of infections would rise again in November,” said Kubitzki.
Broadcast: Brandenburg aktuell, 11/15/21, 7:30 p.m.