Four months ago, Kristan von Waldenfels (CSU) – he won the direct mandate in the Hof constituency in the state elections – felt like he was the youngest Bavarian parliamentarian of all time. But not for 48 hours. Then, as the gradual vote counting revealed, he was surpassed in age by two AfD list candidates who also entered the state parliament and whose names at the time – outside of brown circles – hardly anyone would have heard. What should fundamentally change today.
Waldenfels was beaten as the record holder in terms of age by a certain Franz Schmid. He has since attracted attention in two ways: He admitted that he was part of the mob that loudly shouted “Germany the Germans, foreigners out” in a disco after an AfD party conference – after all, Schmid doesn’t want to have joined in the shouting. And he is said to have been there in Dasing at the networking meeting with the Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner, the man who stands for the disgusting word “remigration”.
Even younger than Schmid, 23, is Daniel Halemba, 22, the boy who was wanted with an arrest warrant immediately after the election. According to the public prosecutor’s office, a printout of an SS order from Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler dated October 28, 1939 with a so-called double sigrune was found in his room in a Würzburg fraternity house.
So a friend of Himmler? In the past, someone like that would have been simply called a tough neo-Nazi. Today the man is a parliamentarian. And one with a superlative title: youngest Bavarian state parliament member of all time.
At the constitutive session of the state parliament, Mr. Schmid and Halemba, the two youngest members of parliament, should normally have sat in representative seats alongside the senior president. But Halemba was prevented. He had recently been temporarily arrested, wanted for suspected sedition.
Youngest parliamentarian, that sounded like a nice title, an exclusively friendly title, an honor. The AfD has managed to turn this into a historic disgrace for the state of Bavaria.