Germany's far-right AfD punishes lawmaker for assault rifle video

A German regional politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been removed from several posts after he put out a video of himself holding an assault rifle on Tiktok.
Maximilian Müger, an AfD politician in the western German state of Hesse, posted the provocative video not long after a deadly knife attack on August 23 at a festival in the western German city of Solingen. He later deleted the post.
Hessian AfD officials said Müger, 31, is no longer a member of the Hessian state parliament's interior committee, and has resigned as deputy leader of the AfD's youth organization, the Young Alternative (JA) as well as local party leadership posts.
In Müger's deleted video, a copy of which was obtained by dpa, shows him with an assault rifle at the ready. He calls for "free weapons for free citizens!" and shoots three times in the air.
Referring to the knife attack in Solingen, Müger declared: "You are no longer safe in German cities and must be afraid of being stabbed or otherwise murdered at a party or on the way home."
Müger could not be reached for comment by dpa on Tuesday.
According to an AfD spokesman, Müger explained that he "accidentally" published the video on Tiktok for only a few minutes before deleting it but said the video was intended only for private use.
"The video was shot at an official shooting range in Poland under the supervision of a shooting instructor and the loaned weapon is subject to all the regulations of Polish law," Müger continued.
But the video prompted outrage in Hesse.
The state's interior minister, Roman Poseck of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), denounced Müger for "legitimizing" the use of armed force against migrants - "and that is terrible."
"There is a high risk that such behaviour will actually lead to outbreaks of violence," Poseck said.