Dhe AfD MEP Nicolaus Fest has to fear for his membership in the party: The federal executive board has unanimously decided to examine party exclusion proceedings against Fest. A spokesman for the AfD confirmed the FAZ a corresponding report of the “world”.
“The federal board of the AfD is currently examining a statutory party order measure against Dr. Nicolaus Fest for continued non-payment of his dues due to elected officials. A final decision on the matter is expected at the next face-to-face meeting of the AfD federal executive board,” Die Welt quoted an AfD spokesman as saying.
The monthly gross basic salary for MEPs is 9166 euros. According to the statute, MEPs would have to pay the party 733 euros a month. Fest has not been paying the mandate holders’ fees since July 2022. In an email from Fest to the AfD federal office from January 2023, which is available to “Welt”, he justifies this with a leak from an internal chat group of the AfD delegation in the European Parliament.
Screenshot punched through
On the day of the death of the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli in January 2022, Fest wrote about him in the group chat: “Finally this bastard is gone.” The ARD capital studio reported on this at the time. Fest writes in the mail that a high-ranking AfD official claimed in July 2022 that AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel pierced the screenshot.
According to Fest, he cannot finance a party that he must assume “that its spokeswoman is involved in a possible criminal intrigue against me”.
A spokesman for Alice Weidel told the “Welt”: “The unfounded speculation mentioned in Mr. Fest’s letter is a transparent diversionary maneuver and has no basis.”
Fest told the newspaper: “In my understanding there was and is an agreement with Mr Chrupalla. As long as he doesn’t clarify the allegations, I don’t have to pay elected official dues. That applies unchanged. I find it disappointing that Mr Chrupalla is no longer honoring our agreement and I will wait and see what happens.”
