The Würzburg public prosecutor’s office has issued an arrest warrant against the new MP Daniel Halemba. The 22-year-old was previously investigated for sedition.
Munich – For Daniel Halemba it would have been a big day in his young career. In the first session of the newly elected state parliament, he, 22 years old, was the youngest member to sit next to senior president Paul Knoblach (69, Greens). This is an honor without any real obligation and only lasts until the new presidency is elected. But it looks like things are going to be completely different now anyway. He could sit, but somewhere else.
Arrest warrant against newly elected AfD MP Daniel Halemba
An arrest warrant was issued against the AfD MP from Lower Franconia on Friday. A spokesman for the Würzburg public prosecutor’s office confirmed this upon request Merkur.de from IPPEN.MEDIA. He did not want to give any further details about the background. The arrest warrant “has not yet been executed,” it said. We still want to wait and see. Halemba himself could not be reached on Friday evening.
Immediately after the state elections on October 8th, it became known that the public prosecutor’s office was investigating the young MP. The accusation: incitement to hatred and wearing anti-constitutional symbols. There had previously been a house search at the Würzburg fraternity Teutonia Prague, of which Halemba is a member. However, it is still unclear what role he plays in the case. Halemba belongs to the strengthened group of hard-right AfDers in the future parliamentary group.
Halemba has already been investigated for sedition
The fraternity itself is considered right-wing extremist – it looks back on a long history. It was founded in 1876 by German students from Karl Ferdinand University and the German Technical University in Prague. The headquarters of the men’s association (motto: “Honor, Freedom, Fatherland”) has been in a rather upscale area in Würzburg’s Frauenland for more than ten years.
As early as 2020, the “Main Post” reported on the neighbors’ anger over right-wing extremist activities on the property. 120 residents even gathered for a protest at the time. They heard inciting right-wing rock, but also shouts of “Sieg Heil” from the property. A few days ago, the regional broadcaster “TV Mainfranken” reported that the neighbors were also alarmed today, but were afraid to speak in front of the camera. Out of fear. The name Halemba is written on the property’s doorbell behind walls and trees.
The Minister of Justice has so far left the request for an arrest warrant against Halemba unanswered
The process is a hard blow for the Bavarian AfD. After countless scandals in and around the old faction, they actually wanted to give a better picture. The anger is correspondingly great, but it is primarily directed externally. “The state repression against the democratic opposition in Bavaria has reached a new level,” explained AfD parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner. A member of parliament should be jailed “on flimsy grounds”.
Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) did not comment when asked and referred to the public prosecutor’s office. Ebner-Steiner, however, suggests that the MPs’ immunity is being disregarded. In this case, however, it is noticeably different even for laypeople. The immunity only takes effect at the start of the first state parliament session, i.e. from Monday. The public prosecutor anticipated this.
Senior president Paul Knoblach would of course have wanted the opening to be different. Already in the first meeting, the AfD, which is partly right-wing extremist, showed its true face. “I have to tolerate the writers Halemba and Schmid from the AfD who are at my side,” said Knoblach on Friday evening. “I will do that without any kind of welcome.” And regardless of whether Halemba will be sitting there or someone else (the next youngest member of parliament would be CSU man Kristan von Waldenfels): Knoblach wants to make it clear in his speech “how endangered our democracy is by the activities of such a party.”
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