The AfD MPs prevented compulsory vaccination in Germany for the time being. Even if the Union and the FDP also contributed their bit, the AfD was the only parliamentary group to cheer and applaud loudly after the results of the vote in the Bundestag were announced.
Another message sweetened the end of the week for MPs and AfD members. In Saxony, according to a survey, the party is again well ahead of the Union (25 percent) with 28 percent. But the start of the week was quite tumultuous.
During the week, heated discussions had erupted over Russia. The dispute over the course of the Russian operation in Ukraine had caused quite a stir in the parliamentary group. On the agenda on Tuesday was a motion to reprimanddeputy parliamentary group leader Norbert Kleinwächter, and to ban him from speaking for three months. “It is unacceptable that a member of the board of directors puts his private opinion above the decisions of the parliamentary group and the party and criticizes colleagues and superiors in public.”
On Twitter Kleinwächter had publicly criticized his colleague Steffen Kotré who spoke about the “biological weapons laboratories in the Ukraine” which were directed “against Russia”: “I distance myself with the utmost determination from the disgusting Putin propaganda that Steffen Kotré spread in the Bundestag today.”
Kleinwächter was lambasted for his public outburst – 17 members of parliament signed the application against him. But after an intervention by MP Thomas Seitz, participants dropped the issue. Kleinwächter and Kotré belong to the same district association in Brandenburg.
Some fundamental differences of opinion within the party and parliamentary group on how to deal with the war in Ukraine nonetheless remain. AfD strongman Tino Chrupalla, a Putin sympathizer, countered internal party critics: “I don’t understand Putin, but I don’t understand Washington or Brussels either. I see myself as a politician who represents German interests at home and abroad.”
https://freewestmedia.com/2022/04/09/a-rough-week-ends-well-for-the-afd/