The new AfD parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner, who already held the post from 2018 to 2021, will rely on confidants on the future board. After she was clearly elected on Wednesday with 27 of 32 votes, Richard Graupner, Martin Böhm and Ingo Hahn prevailed as vice-presidents with similar results. Böhm was their co-leading candidate in the election campaign, Hahn and Graupner were already on the former board, which was no longer confirmed in 2021. According to Ebner-Steiner, the clear choice of tableau is “proof of our unity.”
The directional battle between the ethnic “wing” camp, to which Ebner-Steiner belongs, and the more moderate AfD people is likely to be eliminated in the new faction given the clear balance of power. Even if not all 27 supporters of the new leader belong to the right-wing movement, there are now hardly any dedicated critics internally. On Wednesday, regulatory measures below the threshold of group exclusion were also added to the statutes – apparently an instrument against potentially still unruly colleagues.
The AfD continues to insist on having a vice-president of the state parliament. Parliamentary newcomer Matthias Vogler from Nuremberg is in the race. He made the headlines in 2018 because, as a guest in the Bundestag, he unrolled a “Merkel must go” poster and was expelled from the stands. It will be exciting to see which committee chairs the AfD wants to access. Only candidates who are not known for radical activities are likely to have a majority on the committees. Parliamentary managing director Christoph Maier emphasized that you only act according to who you think is suitable, not according to the wishes of others. Everyone in the parliamentary group has “the trust of the Bavarian people,” and this cannot be “denied by anyone.”