Once again, the AfD did not get the necessary majority to appoint a vice president in the Hessian state parliament. The personnel sparked sharp criticism.
Wiesbaden (dpa / lhe) - The AfD parliamentary group in Hesse has failed in another attempt to have a member of parliament elected from among its ranks as vice president of the state parliament. In the plenary session on Wednesday in Wiesbaden, the deputy AfD parliamentary group leader Andreas Lichtert did not get the required majority in three secret ballots. The opposition faction thus failed again to obtain the sixth, previously vacant, deputy post in the presidium of the Hessian state parliament.
The SPD spoke of the fifth failed attempt by the AfD. Lichert's line-up, who belonged to the supporters of the right-wing nationalist "wing" in the AfD, which has since been formally dissolved, provoked sharp criticism. The SPD parliamentary group criticized that he was all the more unelectable because he was active on the extreme right-hand edge of the political spectrum. The CDU parliamentary group spoke of an affront. In the state parliament, Lichert attracted attention by provocatively quoting right-wing extremist codes.
The FDP parliamentary group called Lichert's statement a provocation by Parliament. He was noticed as an agitator and stands for the radicalization of the AfD. It is inconceivable that a member of the AfD parliamentary group could represent Parliament with the necessary neutrality.
When the AfD moved in for the first time after the 2018 state elections, the state parliament decided to increase the number of vice-president posts from five to six. In addition to the new President of the State Parliament Astrid Wallmann (CDU), five Vice-Presidents from the CDU (Frank Lortz), Greens (Karin Müller), SPD (Heike Hofmann), FDP (Jörg-Uwe Hahn) and Left (Ulrich Wilken) parliamentary groups are currently chairing the meetings of Parliament.
The AfD has not yet provided a vice president in the Bundestag either, and all candidates failed in the elections. Since entering the Bundestag for the first time in 2017, the AfD has been the only parliamentary group that has never been represented in the Presidium of the Bundestag. In principle, many MPs do not want to see the right-wing populists represented in the governing body of the Bundestag. The AfD even went to the Federal Constitutional Court to win a post in the Bundestag Presidium. However, this attempt failed in March of this year.
