According to a media report, the AfD has expelled MEP Nicolaus Fest from the party because of unpaid contributions. The party’s Berlin regional arbitration court decided this in its ruling on March 1, reports the newspaper “Welt”. The federal executive board led by chairmen Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla initiated arbitration proceedings against Fest last year.
Fest has been a member of the European Union Parliament since 2019. As a elected official, he has to make contributions to the AfD according to the party statutes. Fest is said to have withheld this since July 2022. According to the “Welt” report, the arbitration tribunal of the Berlin regional association, to which Fest is a member, met in mid-February of this year.
According to “Welt”, Fest justified the cessation of contribution payments in January 2023 with a leak from an internal chat group of the AfD delegation in the European Parliament. On the anniversary of the death of the then EU Parliament President David Sassoli in January 2022, Fest is said to have made obscene comments about Sassoli in a group chat. Fest claims that Weidel leaked a screenshot to the media. A spokesman for Weidel called the speculation “baseless.”
According to “Welt,” the AfD state arbitration court’s ruling is not legally binding because Fest will submit an application for review to the Federal Arbitration Court. “Fortunately, there are still various arbitration and civil courts, so there is sufficient opportunity to make the moral substance of Mr. Chrupalla, Ms. Weidel and Mr. Krah public,” Fest told “Welt,” referring to the party leaders and the AfD -Top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah.
Fest was head of the AfD delegation in the European Parliament until February 2023 and chairman of the emergency board of the AfD Berlin between January 2020 and March 2021. Fest was not put up again for the AfD’s list for the European elections in June.
