A federal parliamentary group of the AfD is set to discuss the admission of two new members, Matthias Helferich from North Rhine-Westphalia and Maximilian Krah from Saxony, at its constitutive meeting on Tuesday. Both lawmakers, according to the Welt newspaper, expect to be admitted.
A party expulsion procedure is underway against Helferich, the North Rhine-Westphalian state chairman, who had a three-month suspension of office in 2022. Helferich told the Welt, “The arbitration court has established that I am a convinced democrat and not a National Socialist. I assume that the faction will follow the will of the majority of the members in North Rhine-Westphalia and vote for my admission.”
Regarding the ongoing expulsion procedure, he said, “The expulsion procedure from last year was a power play and the last desperate attempt of the state chairman to prevent me from being on the state list.” Helferich had described himself in internal chat groups as the “friendly face of the NS” (National Socialism), prompting outrage and subsequently gave up on becoming a faction member in the previous legislative period.
Krah, on the other hand, told the Welt, “I come with a clear electoral mandate and I am sure the faction will take that into account.” He was the top candidate of his party in the European elections last year, but the AfD delegation did not admit him after he said not all SS men were criminals.