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Prosecutors have released fresh details of their investigation into the newly elected far-right German politician Daniel Halemba, including the possession of Nazi literature, weaponry, SS devotional items and a picture of people consuming ‘Hitler wine’.
Halemba, 22, won a seat in Bavaria’s parliament earlier this month as part of a surge in political support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is now the largest party of opposition in the state.
AfD is also now the second most popular party in polls nationwide, having eclipsed chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats during the summer. More than one in five Germans say they will vote for the party.
Halemba was arrested on Monday and faces charges of possession of Nazi material — which is considered a crime against the German state, and carries a prison sentence of up to five years. A court released him shortly afterwards, on the grounds that he did not pose a flight risk.
He has been in the sights of prosecutors from the city of Würzburg, where he was a student, since a police raid on the rightwing fraternity, Teutonia Prag there in mid September.
Würzburg prosecutors released details of the warrant — and the case against Halemba they are building — on Tuesday.
In the fraternity’s guest book Halemba is alleged to have signed his name with the Nazi salutation “Sieg Heil!”
In his bedroom at the fraternity, police found a printout of a historic SS order signed by Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi commander who was a leading architect of the Holocaust. Weapons, including a machete, batons, knives, a knuckle duster and a disarmed gun were also confiscated.
A picture obtained by police showed fraternity members enjoying a bottle of ‘Hitler wine’ — a product made until last year by the small Italian winery Vini Lunardelli, featuring the Nazi dictator on its label, which has become a fetish object for rightwing extremists across Europe. A bottle was most recently confiscated in Austria as part of a huge trove of Nazi memorabilia and weaponry in June.
Prosecutors did not specify whether the bottle in the fraternity picture had been Halemba’s or if it had been found.
Halemba’s lawyer, Dubravko Mandic, said that “none of the items in question can be connected with my client.” Mandic said the case was politically motivated.
Prosecutors said there is more material they have yet to analyse, including the contents of Halemba’s phone and that of four other Teutonia Prag members.
On Tuesday Halemba defiantly took up his seat in the Bavarian Landtag alongside 31 other AfD deputies. The party has so far stood resolutely behind him. It accuses prosecutors and rival politicians of trying to politically smear its members and distract from popular anger over immigration and the cost of living in Germany.
“The wind is going to start blowing strongly again in this parliament,” AfD faction leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner said on Tuesday in an angry speech directed at the state government.
“So dress up warm, put your collars up, and hold on tight because it’s going to get stormy for you.”
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