AfD under pressure: Internal conflicts and anti -Semitism in focus!

AfD under pressure: Internal conflicts and anti -Semitism in focus!

In Mettmann in Rhineland, the AfD recently brought back a former councilor to her ranks, which was convicted of anti -Semitic sedition. This decision not only triggered internal conflicts within the party, but also makes a lightly on the influence of the right wing of the AfD, which is increasingly gaining power. MP Matthias Helferich, who is considered radical, was able to join the parliamentary group in the Bundestag after this was denied in the previous legislative period. A clear trend is recognizable: the weakening of moderate forces within the party, both at the Bundestag and local level. KStA reports not only the party itself, but also the political landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia influenced.

The public prosecutor's office Mettmann has also confirmed that criminal complaint was filed against all Eight members of the district board for helping to incitement. Petra Kotthaus, the council affected, had shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in an internal telegram group on January 13, 2024, in which she spread half-born theses about an alleged Jewish world conspiracy. Their conviction in January 2025 comprised a fine of 40 daily rates, the judgment is currently not final because it went into appeal.

internal conflicts and resistance

A new board in the district association Mettmann, who favored Kotthaus, withdrew a previously strained exclusion procedure against them. This decision was later canceled by the AfD Federal Arbitration Court, which led to further tensions within the party. Markus Neitsch, the former district spokesman, turned to the state board to have intervening because he feared the AfD's reputation and calculated that some members could leave the party. Despite the critical voices, Martin Vincentz, the state chairman of the NRW-AFD, spoke undecided to Kotthaus ’return and explained that it was not portable for the party, but he did not take any specific steps to clarify the Situation.

For the other parliamentary groups in the city council, the position of the AfD is clear: they do not want to work with the party, which reinforces the political isolation of the AfD in Mettmann. These developments are highlighting the controversy that the AfD has accompanied since it was founded.

criticism of the AfD and anti -Semitism

North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) has now accused the AfD hypocrisy in dealing with anti-Semitism. The reason for this was a big request from the AfD for the anti-Semitism issue in connection with Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel. Reul criticized the AfD MP Enxhi Seli-Zacharias, who in her speech did not mention any facts from the government response and accused the party of spreading hatred and agitation instead of trying to clarify.

In an alarming balance sheet, Reul found that 138 propalestinian meetings had been recorded in North Rhine-Westphalia since the Hamas attack in North Rhine-Westphalia, with 91 criminal complaints being entered into for sedition. Another worrying number are the 113 anti -Semitic crimes that have been registered since then all criminal complaints were reimbursed. These developments reaffirm the urgency of naming and fighting anti -Semitism in all its forms.

The criticism of the AfD is not new: The independent group of experts already found in 2017 that the party had the greatest anti-Semitism problem among parties represented in the Bundestag and the state parliament. Central problems, such as the self -perception of the AfD, which primarily locates anti -Semitism in refugees and Muslims, while one's own responsibility and problems in the German majority society are hardly discussed. bpb emphasizes that this ensures a fundamental discrepancy between the perception of the party and the outsiders. In summary, it should be noted that the AfD dealing with anti -Semitism and its internal development in Mettmann not only affect the party itself, but also encounter great concerns in the broader political spectrum.