The upheaval and civil war fantasies that AfD politicians wrote in a chat are becoming a problem for the right-wing party. The state parliament is appalled, the protection of the constitution is examining it. Is the AfD now also losing members and voters?
No, Anne Cyron didn’t stamp her foot, maybe she was outside the door by herself. The AfD MP defended her subversive chat contribution at a press conference these days (“Think that we will not get out of this number without civil war”). In the AfD Telegram group, in which wild revolutionary fantasies were exchanged, she warned of civil war only in concern for the country, that she was being fraudulently misinterpreted and slandered. Said it and steamed off, inquiries undesirable.
Stomping feet, a mixture of trampling the beetle and galloping up, would have been a good fit. Alice Weidel made an internet-compatible contribution in the Bundestag when she left the plenary with a juicy SPD speech. In any case, the quick exit when things get tough has long been a good AfD tradition. A briefing of the press in 2019 after a turbulent parliamentary group meeting is remembered in the state parliament. A critical question? Aborted after almost three minutes, then an offended exodus. The then parliamentary group leader Ingo Hahn looked as if he had just eaten a whole lemon.
The curtain does not fall in such situations, but at least the protagonists step down. Therefore, let Brecht be allowed: and all questions unanswered! There is a lot that you actually want to know: What is the next step with the AfD in Bavaria? As far as the climate in the state parliament is concerned, Thursday provided clarity. The parliamentary groups stood together against the AfD. “Protect our democracy from its enemies” was the title of the urgency. Fabian Mehring (FW), for example, sees “the firewall between unsavory right-wing populism and illegal right-wing extremism blown”.
And Landtag President Ilse Aigner emphasized that she also considers non-contradiction in such chats to be unacceptable. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is “intensively” examining the chats; In view of the “civil war propaganda”, the high hurdles of the Federal Constitutional Court for observing MPs could possibly also have been cleared.
Pressure on the AfD from all sides. But also exciting: does it crumble by itself? Because of the chats, there should have been prompt resignations, some say “by the row”. Local officials report calls from “completely frightened” voters, often former CSU sympathizers, who said: against refugees, against mandatory vaccinations, against the “system of the old parties”, all of them yes. But not against the system itself, the state order! “It’s all or nothing now. If that holds up until the state elections, we’ll be kicked out. Then that’s it.”