The Bavarian AfD member of the state parliament Daniel Halemba, who is threatened with expulsion from the party for violating party regulations, is resigning from all party positions with immediate effect. Halemba said in a written statement on Thursday evening that he was also suspending his membership rights in the party. However, Halemba made it clear when asked by the German Press Agency that he would retain his state parliament mandate.
“In order to prevent damage to the AfD, I am giving up all party offices with immediate effect and will also forego exercising my membership rights within the AfD until further notice,” the statement said. “As part of a party procedure, I will face all allegations and help clarify them. I am confident that all open questions will soon be clarified.” The party offices he is giving back are the AfD district chairmanship in Würzburg and a position on the Lower Franconian district executive committee.
The Bavarian AfD state executive committee had previously decided to examine party expulsion proceedings against Halemba. The state executive board has unanimously decided that general counsel Ferdinand Mang should hire a lawyer to “review and, if necessary, prepare” the party exclusion proceedings against Halemba commissioned by the federal executive board, state chairman Stephan Protschka told the German Press Agency in Munich in the evening.
The state executive board is not immediately complying with a corresponding request from the AfD federal executive board to initiate proceedings, but is having this examined. The demand was justified by the federal executive board with Halemba’s violations of the AfD’s rules, which would have led to the admission of members in violation of the statutes in the run-up to two meetings for the state elections in Bavaria.
The Würzburg public prosecutor’s office is also investigating the 22-year-old for incitement to hatred and for using the symbols of anti-constitutional organizations. Halemba rejects the allegations.
Read in our archive: The AfD started out ten years ago as a Euro-critical party. It has changed a lot since then and is now significantly further to the right. Part of the membership wants Germany to leave the EU. Nevertheless, a number of people are pushing for the European election list.
