Kay Gottschalk

Last updated

Kay Gottschalk
MdB
2020-07-02 Kay Gottschalk AfD MdB by OlafKosinsky 2667.jpg
Gottschalk in 2020
Deputy Leader of the Alternative for Germany
In office
2 December 2017 1 December 2019
Servingwith Beatrix von Storch
Website Official website

Kay Gottschalk (born 12 December 1965) is a German politician of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and member of the German federal parliament.

He is a co-founder of the AfD. He was one of three deputy federal spokespersons for the AfD from 2017 to 2019 and was re-elected deputy federal spokesperson in 2024. He has been the AfD parliamentary group's financial policy spokesperson since May 2018. In February 2022, he was elected deputy state chairman of the AfD in North Rhine-Westphalia and confirmed in office two years later. [1]

Life and politics

Gottschalk was born 1965 in Hamburg and studied business administration and law. He went on to become an insurance manager. [2] [3]

At the 2017 German federal election he was elected member of parliament through a list place in North Rhine-Westphalia. [2]

In December 2017 he was elected as a deputy leader of the AfD. [4] Since 2019 he was married. His husband died on 1 March 2023. [5]

Following Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gottschalk, alongside AfD MEP Guido Reil and a delegation of NRW Landtag visited Ukraine and declared solidarity, representing a minority in the generally pro-Russian party. [6]

In a speech on January 24, 2018 at the AfD's New Year's reception in Krefeld, Gottschalk said: "I call on all citizens of good will: Boycott the stores of the Turks in Germany, because 70 percent of them are going for Erdoğan" [7] [8] According to his own statements, it was important to him to make a statement against Turkey's attack on Kurdish citizens in Syria, and just as Germans are held responsible for the election of the NSDAP, Turkish citizens and citizens of Turkish origin in Germany should also be held responsible for the policies of said head of state. [9] AfD member of parliament Martin Renner called on Gottschalk to resign from all offices. [10] The state security authorities began investigating him because of Gottschalk's statement. [11] However, these were discontinued by the Krefeld public prosecutor's office in summer 2018, as the offense of Section 130 StGB was not fulfilled. [12]

References

  1. dpa (6 February 2022). "Parteien: Martin Vincentz ist neuer Landeschef der NRW-AfD". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN   0044-2070 . Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  2. 1 2 "AfD-Abgeordnete: Rechts bis extrem im Bundestag". ZEIT ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  3. "Deutscher Bundestag - Kay Gottschalk". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  4. "Flügelschlagen unter Aufsicht von Gauland und Meuthen" (in German). Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  5. Queer.de: AfD-Abgeordneter outet sich im Bundestag als schwul, March 2, 2023
  6. "Alternative for Russia: How the AfD is systematically turning towards Russia". correctiv.org. 19 October 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  7. "Aktuelle Nachrichten | Rheinische Post Online". rp-online.de. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  8. "Aktuelle Nachrichten | Westdeutsche Zeitung". www.wz.de. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  9. "AfD-Politiker Kay Gottschalk empört sich über HSV". FAZ.NET (in German). 26 January 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  10. "AfD-Vize ruft zum Boykott türkischer Geschäfte auf und erntet Widerspruch". stern.de (in German). Archived from the original on 7 September 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  11. Zeitung, Westdeutsche (26 January 2018). "Aufruf zum Türkenboykott: Gegen AfD-Abgeordneten Kay Gottschalk ermittelt nun der Staatsschutz". Westdeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  12. "Aktuelle Nachrichten | Westdeutsche Zeitung". www.wz.de. Retrieved 6 May 2025.