Ex-CDU faction leader against "exclusion" of the AfD in the Thuringian state parliament

The CDU member of parliament and ex-group leader Mike Mohring has spoken out in favor of changing the way the AfD is dealt with in the state parliament. It makes little sense to "exaggerate the AfD through exclusion in parliament without it having to prove itself in terms of content," said Mohring in an interview with the Thuringian newspapers of the Funke media group on Saturday. "We waste hours of every plenary session by not electing AfD MPs to the bodies to which they are entitled according to their relative strength."

He thinks this is a mistake because the AfD MPs have to prove and explain themselves there. If they refuse to meet democratic requirements, they should be voted out again, says the 50-year-old. "But this way she can point the finger at the state parliament and claim that her rights are being curtailed."

The Thuringian AfD state association around party and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke is being observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of right-wing extremist tendencies. "This means nothing more and nothing less than that there are indications for the protection of the constitution that the AfD is not based on the Basic Law," said Mohring in an interview. After the departure of individual MPs, the AfD is currently the third largest parliamentary group in the state parliament behind the left and the CDU. MPs from the Left and Greens reacted to Mohring's statements in the short message service Twitter.

Mohring resigned from his offices together with the AfD in February 2020 after the CDU participated in the election of short-term Prime Minister Thomas Kemmerich (FDP). His planned move to the Bundestag did not materialize after the CDU defeat in the federal elections last year. Recently, he has been the head and spokesman of the parliamentary group working group for the committee of inquiry into politically motivated violent crime.