AfD withdraws Helferich’s membership rights.
Matthias Helferich is considered a right-wing extremist leader within the AfD. The party leadership in North Rhine-Westphalia has long been a thorn in the eye of the 35-year-old from Dortmund. According to a media report, a disciplinary court has reportedly taken action against him.
The AfD’s disciplinary court has upheld the expulsion of Bundestag member Matthias Helferich, the magazine “Stern” reports. The party’s judges in Düsseldorf have handed down a nine-page verdict in the case against the 35-year-old Dortmund MP, a member of the Landesvorstand in North Rhine-Westphalia.
In this ruling, the regional disciplinary court accuses Helferich, who belongs to the Hocke faction and has always enjoyed strong support from the AfD youth group “Junge Alternative”, of linking the Instagram slogan “Raus mit den viecher” with the term “remigration”. This demonstrates “an attitude of dehumanisation of migrants, who are obviously equated with pigs”.
The verdict gives more leeway to the qualification of “real or indirect/subtly subtle threats” by the two AfD judges. Helferich is accused of creating “threat scenarios”, of having repeatedly and deliberately placed “mistakes or perceived mistakes of other party members” and of having done so “to exert pressure”. The court gives several examples.
Matthias Helferich himself rejected the accusations in the ruling and referred to the ban on limiting the formation of opinions within the party.
Despite his membership in the Hocke faction and significant support from the youth of the AfD “Junge Alternative”, Matthias Helferich’s policy in North Rhine-Westphalia has led to disagreements with the party leadership. Following the controversy over the use of a slogan on Instagram, a regional disciplinary court in Düsseldorf is reported to have taken action against the AfD member.
