Berlin court rejects AfD application to eject far-right leader

The crisis inside Germany’s AfD party is deepening after a Berlin court rejected the party leadership’s attempt to eject a far-right figurehead, while new polling confirmed their slumping popularity among voters.

The extremist wing of Germany’s far-Right opposition party were able to hail a success on Friday when a Berlin court rejected a decision by the party’s central committee made in May to annul the membership of Andreas Kalbitz, who was until then party leader in Brandenburg.

The court said that the decision on Mr Kalbitz’s membership could only be made by the AfD’s internal arbitration committee.

A moderate faction under party leader Jorg Meuthen claim Mr Kalbitz was once a member of the Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend (Patriotic German Youth), a neo-Nazi organisation on the party's “no go” list. Mr Kalbitz disputes having been a member of the group.

Mr Meuthen and deputy leader Beatrix von Storch moved against him in an attempt to rescue the party’s claim to be a conservative alternative to Angela Merkel's CDU. That claim was seriously damaged in March when Germany’s domestic spy agency described Mr Kalbitz as an “enemy of democracy” and declared they would put him and key ally Björn Höcke under surveillance.

The Berlin district court’s decision comes as a significant setback to Mr Meuthen, who had insisted in May that there was nothing improper about the central committee's vote to eject Mr Kalbitz.

In the wake of the ruling the extremist wing renewed its attacks on Mr Meuthen, whom Mr Höcke has previously described as a "traitor."

“That’s what happens when a second rate economist relies upon the judgement of third rate lawyers,” a source close to Mr Kalbitz told broadcaster ARD, referring to Mr Meuthen’s training as an economist and Ms von Storch’s background as a lawyer.

Observing the growing rift in the party, founding figure Alexander Gauland told Spiegel magazine he feared it was on the point of  "dividing itself" due to "out and out disintegration."

The removal of Mr Kalbitz also failed to allay concerns in the intelligence services about extremism in its ranks. Last week the domestic spy agency put the entire Brandeburg section of the party under observation over its “ethnocentric worldview.”

The party, which stormed into the Bundestag in 2017 ahead of the Greens and two other minor parties on the back of widespread discontent over Ms Merkel's immigration policies has seen its popularity tank since early March.

While polling at the beginning of Spring put them level with the Social Democrats on 15 percent, a poll released on Saturday showed them on just nine percent.