A series of deaths of their candidates in a local election in North-Rhine Westphalia have shaken the German right-wing populist party AfD.
While originally AfD reported four deaths that all occurred during the same local election campaign, the party has now announced two more.
According to Politico, two reserve list candidates have also died.
Due to the deaths, ballot papers have to be reprinted and successors appointed, and several mail-in ballots are now invalid.
The police say there is no evidence of foul play. While investigations are ongoing, the cause of most of the deaths has already been determined. Ralph Lange and Wolfgang Klinger had serious pre-existing conditions, a spokesperson for the North Rhine-Westphalia AfD told Politico. Wolfgang Seitz also had pre-existing conditions and suffered a heart attack. Stefan Berendes also died of natural causes. Of the reserve list candidates, René Herford had a pre-existing liver condition and died of kidney failure, while Patrick Tietze committed suicide.
The deputy leader of the party’s state chapter has announced an investigation into the cases.
Kay Gottschalk said there is no reason to assume that what happened is no coincidence. The Bundestag members also added the party wants to look into the cases “without immediately getting into conspiracy-theoretical territory.”
Gottschalk noted
I always say, trust is good, control is better.
Already on Sunday, August 31st, party co-chair Alice Weidel shared a post on X stating that the cluster was “statistically almost impossible.” She captioned it: “Four AfD candidates have died.”
