The AfD parliamentary group has confirmed Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla as the top duo. The parliamentary group re-elected both of them as co-chairmen on Tuesday at the regular board election in Berlin with 44 yes votes, 22 of the MPs voted against the leadership duo and 6 abstained, as a spokesman announced. There were therefore no opposing candidates. Weidel was “very, very satisfied” after the election. This is a “very decent result”. It was Chrupalla’s first public appearance after a medical incident at a campaign event in Ingolstadt.
The group almost decided to set up a single leader in the future. A motion for this by defense policy spokesman and former Bundeswehr officer Rüdiger Lucassen narrowly missed a majority: 35 MPs voted for it, 37 against it.
Weidel has been at the head of the parliamentary group since the AfD entered the Bundestag in 2017, initially as co-chairman alongside Alexander Gauland, and since 2021 she has led the parliamentary group together with Chrupalla. Two years ago, 50 MPs voted for the duo and 25 against.
Sebastian Münzenmaier and Beatrix von Storch were confirmed as deputies. Stefan Keuter and Jörn König moved up to the second row of the group. The previous vice-presidents Leif-Erik Holm and Norbert Kleinwächter no longer had a chance. Bernd Baumann remains the first parliamentary managing director.
Chrupalla announces new medical results
In his first public appearance after his hospital treatment for an incident at an election campaign event in Ingolstadt, Chrupalla announced that he would present further medical results on Wednesday. It was confirmed “that there was indeed a puncture site, that there was an incident, or that there was an attack on me,” he said, also referring to a “pathological evaluation” that he had available.
The AfD leader added that the public prosecutor’s office had been warned because it had published information about his blood values without consulting him. “We still have medical confidentiality in this country.” The forensic examination of his blood samples initially did not reveal any special findings, as investigators learned.
Chrupalla was treated in Ingolstadt on Wednesday last week before a planned speech and taken to hospital, where he was monitored in the intensive care unit for one night due to physical complaints. What exactly happened is still unclear. According to the doctor’s letter, the AfD leader was stabbed in the upper arm with a needle. There are speculations that he was injected with a previously unknown substance by an unknown person. Several people are said to have taken selfies with Chrupalla at the appointment and, according to the police, there was “light physical contact”.
The investigation is ongoing. Senior public prosecutor Veronika Grieser in Ingolstadt said on Monday that new information will probably be available later this week when the results of outstanding investigations have been received.
