It is an apparently unique event in the history of the Bavarian state parliament: Because he did not credibly distance himself from an internal AfD chat with sometimes radical content, the AfD MP Markus Bayerbach was voted out as chairman of the education committee in the Bavarian state parliament. He is also accused of having told the untruth in a debate about the AfD chat in the education committee.
The result was clear: nine votes to two
In his last official act, Bayerbach himself announced the result of the non-public vote: nine of the eleven MPs present voted for the dismissal, two were against. Bayerbach’s deputy, Tobias Gotthardt, of the Free Voters has now taken over the chairmanship of the Education Committee. The AfD parliamentary group must now immediately propose a new chairman. The election is to take place at the next meeting of the Education Committee on February 3rd. Markus Bayerbach himself does not consider his deselection to be in accordance with the rules of procedure, since the committee is currently meeting with a reduced number of members due to the corona virus.
Civil war fantasies chat group
The background to the deselection is that Bayerbach was a member of an internal AfD Telegram chat group. In the group, individual members shared civil war fantasies. The BR published excerpts from this chat group in December last year. Bayerbach initially stated that he was not part of the chat group and later apologized for this error. Many of the committee members were then of the opinion that the relationship of trust had been destroyed.
reactions in Parliament
The CSU parliamentary group calls Bayerbach’s deselection “necessary and right”. Because he had not clearly distanced himself from the “disgusting internal AfD chats” in which “democracy was despised and violence glorified”, the dismissal was “logical and compelling”. Also because Bayerbach did not tell the full truth in the education committee at the time.
In doing so, he also destroyed the trust of the other parties, according to the reactions of the parliamentary groups. Fabian Mehring from the Free Voters adds: “Anyone who unchallengedly indulges in fantasies of a coup and civil war with his party friends can no longer head the cultural committee responsible for preventing extremism.” The deselection was also mandatory for the FDP education politician Matthias Fischbach, as well as for the Greens.
The SPD sees Bayerbach’s deselection as a “liberation blow for the education committee”. Because the AfD politician “severely damaged” the reputation of the committee, according to a press release. It is particularly disappointing “that he has not distanced himself from the violent fantasies of his colleague Anne Cyron. Mr. Bayerbach is incorrigible,” said the education policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Simone Strohmayr.
AfD wants to sue against deselection
AfD deputy Uli Henkel sees the voting out as “principles of law violated”: “As a parliamentary group, we fully support our committee chairman Bayerbach and will now take legal action.” The two-thirds majority required for voting out was not achieved because the The education committee actually has 18 members, but these are currently reduced to eleven members as a result of the corona protection measures in the state parliament.
But that doesn’t change the fact that if voted out, all members would have to vote – and then the two-thirds majority would only be reached with 12 votes, argues Henkel: “My suggestion to postpone the vote out until the committee was fully seated again was also accepted not corresponded to.”
Whether the AfD faction may propose a successor to Bayerbach is open. The Green MP Gabriele Triebel is relaxed about the announced lawsuit. Triebel announced that she would not change anything about the deselection.
Bayerbach posts about Muslim students
More than 450 messages in the AfD internal chat called “Alternative Nachrichtengruppe Bayern” come from Markus Bayerbach (AfD). He wrote it between July 2017 and September 2020. This is shown by an evaluation of the chat by BR reporters. The education politician Bayerbach often writes short messages about party internals, some about football or the “Corona lie”. In the spring of 2018 he will comment on educational issues.
Bayerbach, who was a remedial teacher before he entered the state parliament, posts the following statement in the chat: “Actually, every Muslim student must be considered Christianophobic. But that doesn’t interest anyone… or Germanophobe”. A discussion about the disadvantages faced by students with a migration background had previously arisen.
The reason was an OECD study that showed that the children of immigrants performed worse on average in the PISA study than other children. A former AfD district councilor from Upper Bavaria assumes in the chat that “possible IQ differences” are the reason for school performance, a thesis that experts vehemently reject.
Today’s MEP Bernhard Zimniok wrote in the discussion at the time: “Parents don’t give a damn about the teachers’ instructions – for cultural reasons.” Markus Bayerbach reacts to this message with an emoji: Thumbs up. Then he adds that same message about Muslim students. At that time, Bayerbach was a city councilor in Augsburg. Six months later he entered the state parliament.
Tobias Gotthardt (FW): “These statements shock me”
“Such statements by an education politician shock me,” says the deputy chairman of the education committee, Tobias Gotthardt (free voters). Linking education to where you come from is clearly racist, says Gotthardt. Bayerbach should have contradicted this statement in the chat. Gotthardt considers the generalized judgment on Muslim students to be “unspeakable” and further evidence that Bayerbach is “unacceptable” as chairman of the education committee.
When asked about the chat messages, Bayerbach said in the BR interview that the statements were being interpreted maliciously. He taught migrants as a teacher for several decades: “Racism is far from me”. Bayerbach emphasizes that in the last few months before the chat messages were published, he had not read the group.