First AfD parliamentary group meeting: First sandwiches, then arguments

In a stormy first session, the new AfD parliamentary group was formed. A parliamentarian should not even be admitted. Another already feels like in kindergarten.

Not an hour has passed since the first parliamentary group meeting when all employees and the press officers have to leave the room. Because what happens in the new parliamentary group is punctured promptly to journalists. The MPs know that it is their party colleagues who send the SMS messages themselves. The mistrust, however, traditionally sits deep in the AfD – and the dismissal for the employees should above all increase the pressure among themselves.

A lot of trouble and confusing fronts

They had just eaten welcome bites with the old parliamentary group members, toasting their next four years. The message to the outside world was clear: Look, we’re still there.

But there was already anger in the air. It’s about your own interpretation of the election result; to newly elected, controversial MPs – and also to the new parliamentary group. Many who have come to Berlin have something that annoys them. The fronts are confusing, different depending on the topic.

Application for the exclusion of Helferich

So the AfD parliamentary group meeting begins with the fight over the agenda – a supreme discipline of the AfD in the party-internal dispute over the direction. As a greeting, Alexander Gauland, previously the parliamentary group leader, spoke of a great election victory. The applause for this is said to have been very restrained, according to MPs. They are also the ones who do not want to leave Gauland’s words uncommented. A renewed debate on the analysis of the election results ends up at the top of the agenda.

But first the employees have to get out, too much had already leaked out of the hall. Because under the item “News” the first big surprise follows. A motion calls for the newly elected MP Matthias Helferich from North Rhine-Westphalia to be excluded from the parliamentary group. Among other things, Helferich described himself as the “friendly face of NS” in a chat. He himself stated that it was only a third-party attribution by left-wing bloggers that he “satirized”. Many MPs still do not want to have him in their ranks. Above all, they fear for the external impact.

Helferich renounces joining the parliamentary group

After two hours of heated discussions, including an interruption of the session, Helferich fled to the front: He did not want to join the AfD parliamentary group for the time being. The party arbitration tribunal in North Rhine-Westphalia is still pending a decision on his AfD future, it is said. He may also apply for guest status in the parliamentary group. But that would then be a case for the next meetings. Helferich himself does not want to say anything about it at first and leaves the Reichstag building without a word.

But not enough of the unrest: Actually, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, top candidates for the federal election, wanted to be elected as a duo to the top of the parliamentary group. As quickly as possible, as silently as possible. “That will be decided by the members on Wednesday,” Chrupalla himself announced at a press conference after the election.

“I got into something”

For weeks, however, some of the MPs have been meeting in different chat groups. Above all, they want to prevent Weidel from remaining their boss. In the end, they win at least a partial victory: Because the discussion about the election result continues until late in the evening, the election of the boss has to be postponed. “How was that: Wednesday will be elected?” Remarked a member of parliament mockingly when leaving the meeting room.

It also seems clear to the new AfD members of the Bundestag after the first meeting with their colleagues that the time in the Bundestag could be a special one for them. One of them leaves the room shortly before the end of the meeting. “Kindergarten”, keep it through the Reichstag. He’s on the phone at home. So loud that everyone in the lobby can listen. “They are evaluating the election here, but they have no idea what an election campaign is”. His judgment sounds harsh. Almost resignedly, he goes one better: “I got into something.”