“BR” research
Explosive quotes from internal chat: AfD MPs apparently dream of a coup
Stephan Protschka, chairman of the AfD Bavaria since October, does not read the chat group “Alternative News Group Bavaria” by his own account (archive picture from February 2021)
© Timm Schamberger / DPA
The Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) quoted from a Telegram group of the AfD Bavaria. Accordingly, not only members abuse each other there, but MPs dream about revolution and civil war in Germany.
According to one Report of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (BR) AfD politicians and MPs from Bavaria exchanged civil war fantasies in a chat. The BR reporters had been leaked to the content of a closed Telegram group of the Bayern AfD. In it, for example, an AfD district chairman wrote that the Federal Republic was a “banana country”, the system was “corrupt” and “criminal” and concluded: “Without overthrow and revolution we can no longer change course here.” Anne Cyron, who has been in the Bavarian State Parliament for the AfD since 2018, replied to the message: “I think that we will not get out of this number without civil war.”
According to BR, the majority of the AfD members of the state parliament and a total of eleven of the twelve AfD members of the Bundestag are from Bavaria in the quoted chat “Alternative news group Bavaria”. The news was written between the end of 2017 and mid-2021. In the group, the writers would also approach each other aggressively and insult each other as “subhuman” or “baboon gang”, reports the BR.
AfD Bayern welcomes BR in the chat group
Stephan Protschka, one of the administrators and chairman of AfD Bavaria since October, responded according to the BR when asked: “If people throw something at each other internally, it is part of the free democratic basic order that people have different opinions.” He couldn’t say anything about the overthrow fantasies because he had muted the group and was no longer reading it. However, according to BR, he still wrote dozens of posts in the chat group in 2021. The AfD Bavaria welcomes the BR in the chat group and writes: “In the AfD and in the AfD chat groups, there is no cancel culture and no censorship, according to Stephan Protschka. Everyone is also allowed to have a say and participate in the discussion without defamation and stigmatization.”
Constitutional lawyer Klaus Gärditz, Professor at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, comes to a slightly different assessment according to BR: “The revolutionary rhetoric shows the accusation that the free democratic basic order is being aggressively opposed.” In his opinion, the chats suggest that a “takeover of power beyond democratic majorities is sought”. Gärditz sees the assessment of the protection of the constitution, which classifies the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case, confirmed according to “BR”.
Sources:“br.de”, “afdbayern.de”.