The deputy state chairman of the AfD in North Rhine-Westphalia, Kay Gottschalk, has demanded the resignation of several members of the party’s federal executive board. Speaking to the newspaper “Die Welt”, Gottschalk called for the immediate resignation of Sven Trischler and Maximilian Kneller from the federal board. Furthermore, he urged Alice Weidel to “clean up her shop” and rethink her personnel choices. Gottschalk also stated that the regional association suffered considerable financial damage due to the party meeting blockade last weekend, and this damage must be claimed by the group members.
The parliamentary meeting was obstructed last weekend by a surge of candidacies from the faction of Bundestag member Matthias Helferich. According to reports in “Die Welt”, the blockade was planned via a chat group titled “Operation Filibuster.” This group was reportedly founded by Sven Tritschler, a vice-federal chairman and confidant of Weidel, and included several colleagues of federal board member Maximilian Kneller.
Previously, the North Rhine-Westphalia deputy state chairman, Kay Gottschalk, had put a letter to party leadership, including Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, calling for action. In that letter, he stated that they-and only they, as members of the federal executive board-could intervene against the action originating from within the party. He warned that by remaining inactive in such a situation, they would no longer be acting negligently but would knowingly tolerate further financial damage to the NRW regional association and act with conditional intent.
