The candidates from the AfD parliamentary group failed in the election of the new committee chairmen in the Bavarian state parliament on Tuesday. In the morning, the European Committee initially voted against Martin Böhm. The members of the agricultural committee then rejected AfD MP Ralf Stadler as head. The result of the votes is not surprising. Most recently, there had already been signals from the CSU, Free Voters, Greens and SPD factions to reject the applicants from the partly right-wing extremist party.
Last week, the AfD secured the right to propose the presidency for Europe and Agriculture. According to the state parliament’s rules of procedure, the AfD has this right – but the committee members are free to choose the proposed candidates. Nevertheless, the AfD accuses the other factions of behaving “undemocratically”.
In his application speech to the European Committee, the Coburg AfD candidate Böhm described himself as “critical of Europe”. He advocates “a strong Europe of fatherlands” and a reform of the EU “towards a European economic community” that takes nation-statehood into account. Böhm, 59, was the AfD’s top candidate in the state election campaign. He belongs to the ethnic “wing”, the formally disbanded movement of the Thuringian right-winger Björn Höcke.
The Lower Bavarian AfD MP Stadler, 59, produced several scandals in the last legislative period. For example because of a photo montage. In a picture that shows State Parliament President Ilse Aigner (CSU) with students under blue balloons, Stadler had mounted the AfD logo on the balloons. Aigner successfully filed a criminal complaint against Stadler.
The leadership of the committees now falls to politicians from the CSU and Free Voters
Instead of Böhm, the European Committee will now be headed by Ulrike Müller (Free Voters) from Swabia, who was elected vice-chair of the committee on Tuesday. Müller, 60, currently has a rare dual role: she is not only a member of the state parliament, but also a member of the EU Parliament, of which she has been a member since 2014, until the European elections in June 2024. The state parliament office had given her permission for a temporary dual mandate because Müller was waiving her salary for her role as a member of parliament in Bavaria until the European elections. She is “thoroughly a pro-European representative,” said Müller on Wednesday. However, it stands for the principle of “allowing regional peculiarities within Europe”.
The leadership of the Agriculture Committee falls to CSU MP Petra Högl, who was elected deputy chairwoman. The 53-year-old from Lower Bavaria is a farmer herself and was already a member of the committee in the last legislative period.
The AfD candidate for one of the deputy positions of State Parliament President Aigner had already failed at the end of October. Parliamentary newcomer Matthias Vogler, 42, from Nuremberg applied. In 2018, as a guest at the Chancellor’s swearing-in ceremony in the Bundestag, he rolled out a “Merkel must go” poster in the stands and was expelled from the hall. Nevertheless, the AfD proposed him for the post, which is supposed to protect the dignity of the parliament and also represent it to the outside world.