A five-strong delegation of AfD members is on its way to Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. Among the travelers are three members of the state parliament.
Travel to the war zone: Several AfD members are on their way to eastern Ukraine.
FK. A delegation of several members of the AfD (Alternative for Germany) from Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphalia is on its way to the Donbass in eastern Ukraine. According to the Robert Lansing Institute The five-strong delegation includes the members of the state parliament Christian Blex (North Rhine-Westphalia), Daniel Wald (Saxony-Anhalt) and Hans-Thomas Tillschneider (deputy state chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt).
The trip takes place without consultation with the state board of the North Rhine-Westphalian AfD. It is a “private trip”, said the state chairman of the AfD North Rhine-Westphalia, Martin Vincentz, at the request of the NZZ. In the evening, the federal executive committee of the party consults.
The member of parliament Blex confirmed the trip on his Telegram channel. There he writes that he left for Russia with his party friends. For Blex, it is not the first questionable trip abroad: in 2018 he traveled to Syria to meet representatives of the Asad regime, previously to the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula.
In the past, the party has repeatedly made a name for itself with pro-Russian positions and visits to Moscow. In December 2020, AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla traveled to Moscow. A few months later, in March 2021, Alice Weidel, who is also the federal chair today, did the same. According to Weidel at the time, she wanted to “improve German-Russian relations”.