The President of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament is entitled to a vehicle plus driver, but Tobias Rausch (AfD), the new politician on this post, may not have a car by the beginning of November, because BMW rejects leasing him a car beyond that date. Why not? BMW was asked by Spiegel but would not make any statement. But BMW CEO Milan Nedeljković told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on September 22 that regarding the AfD, right-wing populism and nationalism are “poison for a cosmopolitan business hub that thrives on global trade.” Those who call for isolationism and closing off the country are not acting in Germany’s best interests as a business hub, he said.

The affair is yet another in a pattern of fake “pro-democracy” steps by anti-AfD circles over the past weeks. Bank accounts have been cancelled, as well as rooms rented for AfD events; election candidates of the party have not been accepted; elected AfD officials are losing their jobs; and in Kassel an organist has been banned from playing in a church because he has been elected to a political post on an AfD slate.