Member of the state parliament in Bavaria
AfD leadership plans exclusion proceedings against Halemba
Daniel Halemba sits for the AfD in the Bavarian state parliament. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
The pressure on the controversial Bavarian AfD politician Daniel Halemba is increasing. Now the party’s federal executive board also wants to take action. And Halemba draws conclusions – temporarily.
The AfD federal executive board is increasing the pressure on the controversial Bavarian state parliament member Daniel Halemba: He now wants to have a party exclusion process prepared himself, as the AfD federal office confirmed.
Bayerischer Rundfunk had previously reported on the party leadership’s plan. According to the report, the corresponding application should be submitted by next Monday. According to BR, the specific reasons were initially still open, and the AfD federal office did not say anything about it when asked.
When asked by the dpa, Halemba said he was calm about the proceedings. “In this context, it will be clarified beyond any doubt that the allegations are false claims made by a failed competitor,” he wrote. The state executive board has already determined this through legal reports. “I have already been sanctioned for the somewhat negligent acceptance of two new members.” After the process has been completed, he said, he looks forward to “continuing trusting cooperation with the Federal Executive Board again,” said the member of the state parliament.
Halemba refrains from appearing in state parliament
After new allegations from the public prosecutor’s office, Halemba is initially refraining from making public appearances in parliament and is giving up functions within the parliamentary group. Until the proceedings are completed, he will refrain from all appearances in the plenary session, in committees and other public activities as a group member, according to a recent letter from Halemba to his group, which he made available to the German Press Agency. He is also resigning from his position as displaced political spokesman and making his membership in the committee available for submissions and complaints.
“These steps do not represent an admission of guilt, but rather serve to protect the group community and are intended to direct the public focus back to the factual political work of the group,” emphasizes Halemba in his “Personal Statement”. When asked, parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner also said: “For him and for us, his prudent measures do not represent any admission of guilt.” The presumption of innocence is maintained as a fundamental principle of the constitutional state until the trial is completed. There had previously been a lengthy internal discussion that lasted into the evening.
Investigations by the public prosecutor’s office
Halemba has been criticized for months. The public prosecutor’s office has been investigating suspicions of sedition for a long time, and allegations of money laundering, communal coercion and damage to property have now also been added, as the public prosecutor’s office confirmed last week. There are also allegations within the party, including that he is said to have violated the party’s statutes. Halemba said last Friday about the public prosecutor’s new allegations: “I am firmly convinced that I have not committed a criminal offense.”
At the end of last year, the AfD federal executive committee called on the Bavarian state executive committee to initiate an exclusion process. The decision was justified by violations of the party’s rules, which would have led to the admission of members in violation of the statutes in the run-up to two assembly meetings for the state elections in Bavaria. Because of allegations of cheating in his favor when drawing up the list for the state elections, Halemba was then banned from holding office within the party for two years by the state executive board. At a state party conference, a majority of delegates also asked him to resign from his parliamentary mandate. However, this decision was not binding for Halemba – and the group supported him.