AfD politician festival: insults and exultation over Sassoli’s death

Officially, the AfD was affected by Sassoli’s death. Internally it sounds different: In a chat, the EU parliamentarian party makes no secret of his joy. Vice President Barley reacts indignantly.

The official AfD press release from Brussels still sounded very friendly, state-supporting, appropriate to the death of a politician. EU Parliament President David Sassoli “died far too early,” said AfD co-chair Jörg Meuthen, who is also a member of the EU Parliament. Sassoli was a fair President of Parliament, said Meuthen, and his death was a great loss for the European Parliament. On behalf of the Brussels AfD delegation, he writes that death affects them all very much.

Internally it sounds very different with the party members in Brussels: “Finally this bastard is gone,” writes Nicolaus Fest in a WhatsApp group in which the AfD members of the European Parliament exchange ideas. Screenshots are the ARD capital studio before. “An anti-democrat, a shame for every parliamentary idea,” says Fest, who has been a member of the EU Parliament for the AfD since 2019, and in a chat about Sassoli.

Meuthen: “Disturbing and inexcusable”

On request, Fest does not distance itself from his statements. He would like to express himself in detail later this week, he writes, and again insinuates that the chairman of the meeting was “often scandalously partisan”.

His party leader Meuthen is shocked by the statements of his fellow MP: “Such a statement about a colleague who has just died after a serious illness is disturbing, deeply repugnant and inexcusable,” he said ARD capital studio With.

Barley: “Statements indicative of their author”

Other German parliamentarians in Brussels are also outraged. The Vice-President of the European Parliament, Katarina Barley, explains that Sassoli was a respected and valued president across party lines, also because he did not tolerate right-wing extremism and hatred in the European Parliament.

“The statements made by Mr. Fest are indicative of their originator and that contempt for human beings, which Sassoli has always stood firmly against,” said the SPD politicians ARD capital studio. According to some AfD MPs, Fest is now said to have deleted the entry in the AfD chat group.