Surprising election defeat: Von Storch does not become Berlin AfD boss

Saturday March 13th 2021

Surprising election defeat
Von Storch will not become the Berlin AfD boss

The Berlin AfD has unexpectedly spoken out against a dual leadership composed of Georg Pazderski and Beatrix von Storch, as well as rejected the single candidate von Storch for her state chairmanship. The laughing third is a rather unknown politician.

The Berlin AfD has surprisingly elected the former vice-parliamentary leader Kristin Brinker as the new state party leader. At the state party conference in Paaren im Glien in Brandenburg, Brinker received 50.2 percent of the vote on Saturday and thus prevailed against Beatrix von Storch, member of the Bundestag, as a spokesman said. Von Storch had wanted to take over the state chairmanship of the Berlin AfD together with the parliamentary group leader in the Berlin House of Representatives, Georg Pazderski.

There was nothing left of Storch but to congratulate her opponent.

(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)

Brinker won by just one vote. As reported by the RBB, the delegates rejected a dual leadership by a narrow majority and voted for a sole chairman or chairwoman. Pazderski then did not run for election. According to RBB, Brinker is considered to be an internal party opponent of Pazderski and started with the claim to bring "fresh air" to the party in the super election year. The trained architect, born in 1972, is currently the parliamentary group's budgetary and financial policy spokesperson.

The Berlin MPs Jeanette Auricht and Ronald Gläser as well as the Bundestag MP Götz Frömming were elected as deputy chairmen.

The current acting chairman of the Berlin AfD, MEP Nicolaus Fest, had announced that he would no longer be available for the office. The state party is currently led by an emergency board because the election of a new board was not possible due to repeated postponements of the party congress. The event in Paaren im Glien was the fifth attempt by the AfD Berlin to hold a state party conference. According to the RBB, more than a hundred counter-demonstrators gathered in the place in the morning.