New Correctiv research
Eleven AfD elected officials convicted of acts of violence
April 5, 2024, 11:53 a.m
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In parliament, AfD members like to portray themselves as upstanding citizens, and some of them have already come into conflict with the law, and not just because of trivialities. At least eleven of them are convicted violent criminals, and further proceedings are still ongoing.
According to research by the Correctiv network, at least eleven AfD elected officials are convicted violent criminals. Five are currently being investigated for acts of violence, the research platform reported. Corrective researched According to the information in the past few weeks, there have been 48 AfD elected officials and employees at district, state and federal levels who have been noticed for acts of violence in the recent past.
According to the research, 28 of these politicians were convicted by a court at least in the first instance, meaning that some of the judgments are legally binding. Despite this conviction, 14 of them are still active in their political office. These include two members of the Bundestag and three members of the state parliament.
According to Correctiv, at least eleven AfD elected officials became physically or verbally violent or aided and abetted violence. Three others were convicted of weapons possession or abuse of office. According to the report, at least five other AfD elected officials are currently being investigated. Most of the verdicts were handed down in the past two years, Correctiv reported.
From attacks to possession of weapons
The cases include physical attacks, verbal violence such as insults or incitement, and indirect violence such as aiding and abetting, possession of weapons or abuse of the monopoly on the use of force by office. From a legal perspective, these are usually offenses that, according to the Criminal Code, can be punished with a minimum prison sentence or a fine.
In a direct comparison with other parties, the research platform was unable to find anything similar among the Left or Greens, nor among the CDU/CSU, SPD or FDP. According to the information, the AfD federal association did not comment on this to Correctiv, and the 14 convicted AfD elected officials also did not comment or did not comment specifically.
Thorsten Frei, parliamentary director of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, said Correctiv about politicians who attracted attention with acts of violence: “I personally consider them unsuitable for the exercise of public office.” At stake would be nothing less than the trust of citizens in their elected representatives. The institutions of parliamentary democracy could be damaged.
According to the report, the preservation of democracy is at stake for left-wing Bundestag member Clara Bünger. “To serve this overriding interest, a tightening of the right to stand for election can be considered,” she said. However, this does not guarantee that anti-democratic people in powerful positions will be excluded.
According to the current legal situation, the right to stand for election only expires if you are convicted of a crime with a prison sentence of at least one year. Examples of crimes include serious bodily harm, sexual abuse, manslaughter, robbery or perjury.