AfD in the FC Bundestag: “We are well positioned on the right!”

The air at Kassem Taher Saleh is out. At least in the football he fits his Bundestag colleague Maja Wallstein in front of the northern entrance of the Bundestag. “You are flat. You could have pumped it up,” she snaps Taher Saleh.

Taher Saleh and Wallstein sit in different groups in the Bundestag. He is a green one, she is a social democrat. After work, they play in the same team. Both are members of the “FC Bundestag”, the official soccer team of parliament. “The place is about the values ​​of sport: fairness, inclusion and internationality,” says Wallstein. Everyone is welcome – with one exception: the alternative for Germany. For the SPD politician it is clear: “It doesn’t fit there.”

In 2024, the parliamentary football team therefore excluded the AfD members from the game. It was the weeks after the investigative journalists from “Correctiv”. For Taher Saleh it was the best year at FC Bundestag. Since the AfD is not in the cabins and in the football fields, the mood among themselves has been much more trusting. Also because he can now reverse: “I personally do not want to stand naked with Nazis and right -wing extremists in a shower.”

But that could be over now. The Berlin Regional Court declared the decision to be void, according to which a simultaneous membership in the association and in the AfD was incompatible. Four AfD members of the Bundestag, on the other hand, had sued. In the parliamentary group in the Bundestag, this creates a jubilee mood.

Stephan Brandner says of himself, he is absolutely not interested in football. Even though he comes out of the Ruhr area. A region in which people first ask which football club you keep your fingers crossed before less important things are clarified. Despite the lack of football passion, the federal board member makes a big deal of the court decision. With the attempt to exclude the FC Bundestag, led by an SPD politician, failed.

Brandner believes that this question had to be clarified in court. But the AfD had to react like this that one was treated “illegal”. “Especially at FC Bundestag, I don’t open up what this should have to do with politics at all,” Zetert Brandner.

The case exemplifies the difficult question of how to deal with the AfD in the Bundestag. It has long since become a political issue. The number of her MPs has doubled after the recent election, 152, primarily men, will belong to her. Nevertheless, the second strongest group has no chance of providing one of the Vice President. All other factions represented in Parliament will reject the election of an AfD candidate. To the annoyance of Brandner: “An attempt is made everywhere to put sticks into the spokes.”

SPD woman Wallstein cannot understand the trouble. The normal right of every MP, not to vote for “such people”. “The AfD also has every right not to choose a Claudia Roth as a vice president,” said Wallstein. And since that has also happened, the AfD should not “sacrifice”.

There is also a dispute when awarding the posts of committee chairs, in which the AfD most recently went out empty, and when allocating rooms. The AfD claims the SPD meeting room and justifies this with its increased number of MPs. The hall is named after the Social Democrat Otto Wels. One of the few that was not bent before the NSDAP authorization law in 1933.

Brandner comments all of this annoyed. Behind it is only the inability to deal with the AfD on the argumentative level and in terms of content. It’s just about cutting “with the club”. Strong words for a member of the Bundestag who belongs to the top of his parliamentary group and parliament in the admission calls.

Back to the FC Bundestag. He now has to have the AfD MP Jörn König and Malte Kaufmann, according to his own statements, members of the association. Among other things, they had sued and said after the judgment: “We are happy to give our best for FC Bundestag with the eagle on the chest on the chest on the field.”

A message that the green cassemume Taher Saleh takes on without any enthusiasm. You are well positioned at the FC Bundestag and do not need substitute players. At least in the recent past, this does not apply to the results of the team. At the European Championship of the parliamentary teams, FC Bundestag finished third in the summer. However, only four teams competed.

The MPs could therefore use any support. Or? AfD man Brandner says: Yes! King and merchant are “gifted footballers”. An assessment that Taher Saleh does not share: “A Mr. König cannot do anything on the ball.” It could “stand up” at most. Malte Kaufmann could be “entrusting a pass, but not more.” His judgment: “They are not helpful.”

SPD colleague Wallstein is more diploma. She does not want to judge the playful qualities. “I am interested in the ideas and the political orientation they have,” she says. These are “inhumane” and therefore “not sustainable”.

And now? In FC Bundestag, one is considering changing the statutes. In order to be able to finally throw the AfD kickers out.