Saxon AfD politician Roland Ulbrich resigns as Vice President of the Federal Arbitration Court

The Saxon AfD politician Roland Ulbrich has resigned from his position as Vice President of the AfD Federal Arbitration Court. As the AfD federal association announced on its website on Wednesday, the 61-year-old is thus taking "responsibility for the content of an urgent decision" by the panel. This could give the impression that he is "adopting a concept and a legal principle of National Socialism with his jurisdiction". Ulbrich could not initially be reached for comment.

The AfD parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament announced on Monday that it intended to expel Ulbrich from its ranks. He had "seriously violated party principles". In addition, the state executive committee, in coordination with the national leadership, applied for party expulsion proceedings. The AfD did not comment on the exact background. The party was forced to take action, it said. Ulbrich was considered a right-winger within the AfD and was also controversial within the party. He comes from Düsseldorf and is a lawyer by profession.

However, the planned expulsion from the parliamentary group will not take place this Wednesday as assumed. AfD parliamentary group and party leader Jörg Urban cited regulations on Tuesday. "The deadline is not tenable until tomorrow." That is why no decision will be made on Wednesday. If the allegations against Ulbrich are confirmed, the AfD arbitration court will certainly also follow the request for party expulsion.

Urban describes the Ulbrich case as an isolated incident. "We don't have any extremists in our ranks. And if there is suspicion, then we deal with it. We are doing this very intensively in the case of Roland Ulbrich," said Urban.

The party leader also saw no need to change the procedure for joining the AfD. "I think we check our membership much more intensively than other parties, especially when it comes to previous membership of certain associations." However, it can never be completely prevented that you only realize afterwards if someone holds views that are not in line with the party principles. "The important thing is to react when something like this comes up."

The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony classified the AfD regional association as a "right-wing extremist movement" in December 2023. The AfD now wants to take legal action to force access to the associated report.