Peter Kurth is said to have received right-wing extremists in his apartment, the Spiegel reported at the end of last week. That is why the Federal Association of German Waste Management, Water and Circulation Management (BDE), in which the large private waste disposal companies are organized, announced that Kurth would be separating from his position as executive president.
“We distance ourselves sharply from right-wing ideas,” said the association. That is why they “immediately” separated from the former Berlin CDU finance senator and long-time BDE president. “Right-wing extremism, racism or anti-Semitism have no place in the BDE.” The BDI, of which the BDE is a member, made a similar statement.
Kurth admitted that he was “personally friends with several members of the AfD”. Specifically, Spiegel reports on a meeting in Kurth’s private apartment in June 2023.
The politician Maximilian Krah, who belongs to the ethnic-nationalist wing of the AfD, presented his new book there. According to the report, his publisher, the right-wing extremist Götz Kubitschek, also appeared there.
Prominent neo-fascist from Austria as a guest
Martin Sellner is also said to have been present. The right-wing extremist from Austria made national headlines last week after his appearance at a conspiratorial meeting of various right-wing activists, politicians and private individuals became known.
He is said to have explained to the group his plan for “remigration”, i.e. how millions of people could be driven out of Germany in order to create an ethnically and culturally pure society.
Career in the CDU and the BDE
Kurth was Berlin’s finance senator from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2006 he sat in the Berlin House of Representatives. In 2009 he failed as a CDU candidate in the election of Cologne mayor.
Kurth has headed the BDE since 2008. His regular term of office there ended in September 2023. He was expected to remain in office on an interim basis until the end of January. (pfa)