An FDP local politician posted numerous disturbing videos of himself on the Internet. The party is shocked and initiates an exclusion process.
An FDP candidate for the local elections in Aalen in the Ostalb district shared disturbing, apparently self-made videos on the Internet.
One of the videos shows the man licking several public toilets. In another, he smears himself with feces and compares himself to Hitler. The politician also shows himself completely naked at times while he sings the first verse of the Deutschlandlied (“Deutschland, Deutschland über alles”), which has long been outlawed in Germany.
At the request of FOCUS online, the FDP Aalen-Ellwangen announced that criminal investigations had been initiated against the candidate. It is therefore not possible to provide any further information about the candidate or the circumstances under which the videos were recorded.
The FDP had already declared on Wednesday that it had not known anything about the content. “We would like to further emphasize that we have no tolerance or understanding for the actions or statements depicted and expressly distance ourselves from them,” said a press release. Support was withdrawn from the candidate and party expulsion proceedings were initiated.
The candidate may be anticipating this: “He has now declared that he will be leaving the FDP and will not actively pursue his candidacy on the FDP list,” said a spokesman for the Aalen FDP to FOCUS online. It will be checked whether the candidate can be removed from the electoral list. “If this is unfortunately not legally possible – which is also our expectation – the candidate has explained to us that if he is elected to a municipal committee, he will forego any possible mandate and will not take up the position.”
The spokesman for the FDP association also said: “It is extremely frustrating that the voluntary work of our members and supporters in the local election campaign is being damaged so much by the events that have now become known in the private life of a candidate.”