Stephan Brandner, a politician with the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has been fined €50,000 for referring to a journalist as a “fascist”.
Brandner used the term to describe Der Spiegel journalist Ann-Kathrin Müller several times on social media.
Brandner’s office told Brussels Signal it would not comment on an active case, possibly implying he intended to appeal the decision handed down by the Berlin Regional Court earlier in July.
Müller discussed the case at length on social media platform X.
“You may remember: AfD federal executive and lawyer Stephan Brandner called me a ‘fascist’ several times on X. A court prohibited him from doing so, but he did not delete all of his tweets. He has to pay a total of €20,000 in fines for this. But that’s not all,” the journalist wrote on July 31.
“Because on the evening of the European elections, he tweeted again, calling me that again. It will now be even more expensive, the Berlin Regional Court has decided: Another €30,000 will be added, plus the legal costs (not yet legally binding). So €50,000 is a record sum, say my lawyers.
“The court also justifies the amount of the fine. It writes that Brandner acted ‘at least negligently’ by repeating the insult despite the ban. It should be ‘sufficient’ to ‘encourage him to comply with court orders in the future’.
“In addition, the public prosecutor’s office is conducting preliminary investigations into defamation. Brandner had also promised a ‘generous’ reward to anyone who called me a fascist without being prosecuted – after he was first banned from using the term.
“Let’s see what the rule of law thinks of this. In the meantime, Brandner has deactivated his X-account with over 73,000 followers to ensure that we (and perhaps others?) do not find any further violations.”
Ihr erinnert euch vielleicht: AfD-Bundesvorstand und Jurist Stephan Brandner hatte mich auf X mehrfach als „Faschistin“ bezeichnet. Ein Gericht verbot ihm das, doch er löschte nicht alle Tweets. Insgesamt 20.000€ Ordnungsgeld muss er deswegen zahlen. Doch das ist nicht alles.
— Ann-Katrin Müller (@akm0803) July 31, 2024
Brandner did register a new X account in July. There he claimed on July 8 that the party was using “the constituency and election campaign weeks (some mistakenly call it summer break) to renovate, polish and clean the ‘big’ account”.
The AfD politician, a member of the German Bundestag since 2017 and one of three deputy federal spokespeople for the party, reportedly called Müller a fascist “because she herself had made the accusation of fascism a socially acceptable matter of course and thus trivialised fascism”.
Müller regularly wrote in derogatory terms about the AfD, attributing fascist traits to the party. She also claimed there were fascist characteristics among individual functionaries in the AfD.
When Brandner hit back at her, she went to court and claimed that calling her a fascist amounted to “abusive criticism”.
“The designations were insulting and derogatory and represented a serious attack on Müller’s honour and reputation, especially as a journalist,” Legal Tribune Online wrote about the case .
In an initial ruling, the court upheld Müller’s application for a restraining order on grounds of defamation and violation of privacy rights.
The court reasoned that Brandner’s lawyer’s arguments failed to provide any factual basis for claiming Müller was a fascist who was attacking free journalism and was demonising political opponents.
It also stated that even if Müller had previously called others “fascist”, this did not justify using the same term against her. “If everyone is allowed to be called a fascist, real fascists are no longer noticeable,” the court reasoned.
After the initial ruling, Brandner called on his followers to continue to call Müller a fascist. He wrote: “Whoever manages to share my opinion in a legally secure and strong manner will be generously rewarded!”
With this, he defied court orders, setting himself up to be fined further.
During his tenure in the State parliament, Brandner repeatedly drew attention for insulting political opponents in speeches and at rallies. Over his three-year term, he received 32 official reprimands for his conduct, which he documented on his website.
In 2016, Brandner was ejected from a parliament session following a series of verbal attacks on other political parties. He specifically targeted Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (The Greens), referring to them as “climate protection child molesters and coke noses”, and also insulted the CDU (Christian Democratic Union).
In 2017, he described those demonstrating against the AfD as the “result of sodomy and inbreeding” and also compared them to the Sturmabteilung, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party.
Brandner was voted out of office as chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee by its members on November 13, 2019, in large part due to his insulting statements.
The politician is counted among the völkisch-nationalist wing of the AfD and is considered a confidant of Björn Höcke, head of the AfD in Thuringia.
Höcke was convicted in May by the Halle city court after he was found guilty of knowingly using a Nazi slogan in a speech.
