Presented by the AfD’s lead candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, for a photocall in the state capital of Magdeburg on Thursday, some of the members-elect were revealed to have a range of questionable backgrounds, including criminal records, Stasi pasts and connections to far-right networks.
Two MPs are facing investigations into allegations they sought to continue the activities of the banned rightwing extremist organisation Artgemeinschaft, a neopagan group that has embraced nationalist and antisemitic ideas. The younger of the two is also alleged to have violated the law in relation to weapons, according to the public prosecutor’s office. Both reject the allegations.
The erstwhile pornography actor was convicted for stealing bedding in bulk from a hotel. A court confirmed he had been a pornography actor after he contested a local newspaper’s claims. He was expelled from a university after being found to have falsified his school leaving certificate, Die Zeit reported. The MP says he was readmitted after a legal challenge.
An ex-Stasi officer, aged 78, who won a direct mandate in his constituency, has admitted to having worked for the ministry for state security in the communist GDR, focused on East German citizens who wanted to permanently emigrate.
His role as an MP-elect has been criticised by campaign groups on behalf of victims of the former East German dictatorship.
Also, an investigation by the broadcaster ZDF revealed that some AfD ministers-elect who were also members of the previous parliamentary group, had ties to rightwing extremist groups. This included some having been members of the subsequently outlawed Homeland-Loyal German Youth group, HDJ. At one stage one of them had led the organisation, while an adviser to the AfD’s parliamentary group wrote a biography described as an “homage to national socialism”.
Among the prospective MPs are a number with pro-Kremlin links, as well as some who visited members of the Maga movement in Washington.
Asked to respond to the questionable biographies, in particular of the two MPs under criminal investigation, Siegmund, a former fragrance salesman who was unanimously re-elected as the AfD’s parliamentary group leader on Thursday, referred to the men in jest as “the bad guys” and said “we will await the results of the investigations and then discuss them”.
The statement was seized on by the party’s opponents. Katja Pähle, the chair of the Social Democrats (SPD) parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt, said Siegmund had issued a “political threat” by suggesting the use of “violence as a political tool”.
“This reveals the ugly face of a political system whose language and ideas are once again reminiscent of totalitarian models,” she said.
Whether the AfD, which secured 44% of the seats, forms a state government, which would make it the first far-right party to gain power in Germany since the second world war, will depend on whether it can find other like-minded MPs who might defect, or a single party willing to support the AfD. So far, the mainstream parties have refused to enter a coalition with the AfD, which has just under half of the 83 seats in the state, three short of an absolute majority.
Protests against the AfD are planned in more than 20 cities across Germany this weekend in response to the party’s win last Sunday, and ahead of two crucial state elections on 20 September, in Berlin and in Mecklenburg Vorpommen, where the AfD are predicted to do well.