AfD with Helferich and Krah: The “friendly face of the NS” accepted into AfD parliamentary group

According to taz information, the "friendly face of the NS" was accepted into the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag on Tuesday without much opposition: Matthias Helferich from North Rhine-Westphalia. In the last legislative period , the right-wing extremist was not part of the parliamentary group . He is known because chat messages from him were made public before the last election in 2021 in which he had described himself as the "friendly face of the NS" (National Socialism, ed.) in 2017. Helferich, who was already on the AfD list at that time in 2021, played it down as a joke.

Just as unfunny: The lawyer called himself the "democratic Freisler" - Roland Freisler was a Nazi lawyer and participant in the Wannsee Conference. The fact that Helferich boasted about having contacts in the neo-Nazi scene and growing cornflowers (a symbol of Austrian Nazis) fits the picture. Because of further racist outbursts, Helferich is even being expelled from the party in North Rhine-Westphalia .

On the sidelines of the meeting , the right-wing extremist announced that he wanted to push forward the "culture war from the right" in the cultural committee - with "positive reference to the nation and the people". None of this seems to be a problem for the AfD parliamentary group in 2025.

Maximilian Krah , known for his TikTok videos with incel vibes (“Real men are right-wing”), trivialization of the SS, and China and Russia affairs , was also accepted into the parliamentary group without any problems. He was elected via a direct mandate after running for office in Saxony and the federal government against the will of the party leadership.

Chrupalla and Weidel are likely to be particularly annoyed by Krah, who was elected to the EU Parliament last June but was not accepted into the parliamentary group in Brussels after numerous escapades and a botched election campaign. Weidel and Chrupalla summoned him to Berlin after many quarrels and suspended him from the election campaign , but Krah continued anyway . He is to let his mandate rest.

The election of the parliamentary group leaders appeared unanimous: Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla ran as dual leaders as announced and were elected with 95 percent. Sebastian Münzenmaier, Beatrix von Storch, Jörn König and Stefan Keuter were elected as their deputies. In total, the parliamentary group consists of 152 MPs, 94 of whom are new to the Bundestag.

Weidel appeared to be in a good mood after the meeting and tried to portray the integration of the ultra-radicals as a leadership strength in a statement - "we have an orderly shop," said the right-wing extremist and continued to rant towards Merz and the CDU.

As the taz learned, there had been internal debates about both admissions beforehand. However, after Krah and Helferich had formally declared their intention to join, no one stood up at the meeting - both went through without a hitch.

There was criticism from within the party of Helferich's admission: Weidel and Chrupalla had "received all information and warnings, they know the content of the party exclusion proceedings against Helferich". Now that they have admitted him, they bear responsibility for all consequences and scandals.