Six AfD politicians die in North Rhine-Westphalia ahead of local elections

Six AfD politicians have reportedly died before the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.

According to POLITICO, in addition to the four deaths previously reported by the AfD, two candidates from the reserve list have also died. The state deputy chairman announced that an investigation into the cases has been launched.

In addition to the four previously known cases, there is also René Herford, who had a pre-existing liver condition and died of kidney failure, and Patrick Tietze, who committed suicide. This information was confirmed to POLITICO by an AfD spokesperson in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Unlike the other four cases, these politicians were reserve list candidates.

AfD state deputy chairman Kay Gottschalk, however, believes there is not yet any reason to assume this is anything other than a coincidence.

Gottschalk, who is also a federal deputy chairman, said on POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook Podcast that the information he currently has “at least for now, does not confirm these suspicions.”

However, the AfD member of the Bundestag stated that the cases would be investigated “without immediately jumping to conspiracy theories,” adding, “I always say, trust is good, control is better.”

Another federal deputy chairman, Stephan Brandner, is skeptical that this is a coincidence. Brandner, an AfD member of parliament, said, “From my perspective, this is a statistically striking situation that is currently difficult to explain. I have never heard of so many politicians from one party dying in such a short period before an election.”

On Sunday, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel made a post on X stating that this accumulation is “statistically almost impossible,” pointing to the deaths of four AfD candidates.

Due to the deaths, ballots will be reprinted and successors will be determined. Several mail-in ballots have become invalid, leading to partial chaos.

According to the police, there is no suspicion of murder. Although investigations are still ongoing, the cause of death for most of the deceased has already been determined.

An AfD spokesperson in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia told POLITICO that Ralph Lange and Wolfgang Klinger had serious health problems. Wolfgang Seitz also had health issues and suffered a heart attack. Stefan Berendes also died of natural causes.