AfD district administrator Robert Sesselmann has made his relationship with a former NPD member public. He has been in a relationship with the woman since May. “She has been my partner ever since,” he explained when asked by the dpa news agency. He did not know her before, nor her past – “such as the fact that she was active in the NPD.”
In 2019, the woman left the NPD and her police clearance certificate had no entries, according to Sesselmann. “I do not maintain contact with members of the Heimat or the NPD,” he stressed. However, it cannot be ruled out that he speaks to people from the right-wing scene at campaign stands or at citizen dialogues, “just as I will speak to anyone from other political organizations,” he made clear.
Previously, Thuringian Left Party MP Katharina König-Preuss had pointed out Sesselmann’s connection and referred to information from an “anti-fascist research”. A picture is circulating on the Internet in which the woman can be seen posing in front of a swastika flag and a picture of Hitler. Other pictures or screenshots show the woman at “Thügida” demonstrations or with other right-wing radicals.
The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s report of 2018 states, among other things, that she has contacts with leading NPD members and can also rely on contacts with right-wing extremists operating nationwide.
Sesselmann further stressed that the relationship was purely private. He had spent a four-day holiday with the woman over Pentecost and combined this with campaign appearances. His partner was not a campaigner. He continued: “I can assure you that I strive to conscientiously fulfil my duties as district administrator and that this relationship has no influence on my cross-party and neutral work as district administrator.”
Sesselmann was elected last summer as the first AfD district administrator in Germany. The election of the AfD politician to the top municipal office caused a stir and outrage nationwide. The Thuringian AfD and its chairman Björn Höcke are classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution and are being monitored; Sesselmann is on the party’s state executive board. As elected officials, district administrators must stand on the basis of the free and democratic basic order. The Thuringian State Administration Office checked Sesselmann’s loyalty to the constitution after his election and found no objections.
