The Bavarian AfD state leader and member of the Bundestag Stephan Protschka is threatened with trial because he is said to have insulted Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). A court spokesman confirmed on Friday that the Deggendorf district court had issued a penalty order for a fine of 60 daily rates for insult. Protschka lodged an objection. The court hearing will “probably take place in March”.
Söder had reported Protschka after comments made at the AfD’s political Ash Wednesday in Lower Bavaria last year. Protschka is said to have called him, among other things, “Södolf” and “traitor”. The Bundestag subsequently lifted Protschka’s immunity to enable criminal proceedings. According to the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office, the fine requested for Protschka in the penalty order is “in the lower five-digit range.”
If Protschka withdraws his objection before a trial date, the penalty order would become final and the trial would be canceled. The chairman of the AfD regional association did not initially respond to a dpa request for comment.