Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Katrin Lange has resigned. On Friday afternoon, at a press conference, she said it was “not good” for the coalition if the debate about her and the constitutional protection overshadowed everything else. “I do not want to stand in the way of the necessary cohesion.” She therefore informed Minister President Dietmar Woidke of her resignation as state interior minister.
Lange had faced criticism after she ordered the dismissal of constitutional protection chief Jörg Müller on May 6th. She had stated that Müller had informed her too late about the constitutional protection’s decision to classify the AfD state party as reliably right-extremist. The decision also sparked a dispute within the Brandenburg coalition and the SPD state parliament group.
At the resignation press conference, Lange criticized the handling of the AfD in general and the demand for a party ban. She argued that it would be better to convince voters of the merits of another party instead of voting for the AfD.