Three AfD members caused outrage within the party with a trip to Russia. The trip now has serious consequences for the member of parliament Blex: The Düsseldorf parliamentary group excludes the politician from their ranks. Blex shows no remorse.
After a trip to Russia that was sharply criticized, Christian Blex, a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament, was expelled from the AfD parliamentary group. This was announced by the Düsseldorf parliamentary group. A corresponding application received the necessary two-thirds majority. Blex himself was not present at the meeting. According to the AfD parliamentary group, he is still abroad, but it is unclear exactly where.
"The parliamentary group assesses the behavior of Dr. Blex as a serious breach of trust and, in view of these facts, sees no basis for further cooperation," said parliamentary group and state party leader Martin Vincentz. According to WDR, nine members of parliament spoke out in favor of the exclusion, while two voted against.
At the beginning of last week, Blex traveled to Russia with two AfD members of the state parliament from Saxony-Anhalt and two AfD members from North Rhine-Westphalia. After severe criticism, the AfD politicians canceled their trip and waived the originally planned visit to the Russian-occupied Donbass in eastern Ukraine. Blex "never made it accommodating to the faction that his behavior in planning and carrying out his trip without consultation with the faction represents a violation of the basic values of the faction community," said Vincentz. In fact, Blex defended his position in a statement that he could "carry out trips of this kind without knowledge or even consultation with the parliamentary group".
According to their own statements, the AfD federal leadership was not informed about the trip and had distanced itself from it. The federal board had asked the three participants to disclose the organization of the trip. Blex had already caused outrage in 2018 with a trip with several AfD politicians to the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia. He had also traveled to Syria.
