The chairman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, is looking for ways to get rid of MP Hannes Gnauck (AfD) as a committee member. "It's not easy, but it's long overdue," the FDP politician told the F.A.Z. on Friday.
Friederike Haupt
Political correspondent in Berlin.
- Follow I follow
Gnauck is chairman of his party's youth organization, the Young Alternative. This had been classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution a few days ago as right-wing extremist. Their positions are not compatible with the Basic Law. There is no doubt that it is pursuing anti-constitutional tendencies.
As a result, the three spokespersons of the traffic light factions in the committee had demanded in an appeal that Gnauck leaves the committee. For members of the committee, what also applies to the soldiers of the Bundeswehr, which he controls, must apply. Namely, that they stand "firmly on the ground of the Basic Law," the parliamentarians wrote in their appeal, which is available to the F.A.Z. "This is demonstrably not the case with Mr. Gnauck."
AfD does not want to pull off Gnauck
Furthermore, the spokespersons – Wolfgang Hellmich (SPD), Sara Nanni (Greens) and Alexander Müller (FDP) – demand that the AfD distance itself from Gnauck and dismiss him from the Defense Committee. The parliamentarians fear that Gnauck could obtain explosive information that is crucial for German security through his membership of the committee, and that he could also gain access to further information by citing his membership.
The AfD rejected the demand for Gnauck's withdrawal as "impudence". "The assessment of the party-politically instrumentalized protection of the Constitution is not decisive for us," said the first parliamentary manager of the AfD parliamentary group, Bernd Baumann. There is no doubt about Gnauck's suitability.
In fact, it is likely to be legally difficult to exclude Gnauck from the committee. According to the Rules of Procedure of the Bundestag, the parliamentary groups nominate their committee members. Under what conditions members of a committee in which they are members could be expelled, the Bundestag administration could not answer on Friday at the request of the F.A.Z. initially.