Request for cancellation after a major donation to the AfD of Switzerland

Alice Weidel is under pressure in the AfD for an alleged donation scandal. (Image: Frabizio Bensch / Reuters)

(sda dpa) According to research conducted by WDR, NDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung", between July and September 2017, 130,000 euros from a Swiss pharmaceutical company, divided into several tranches of 9,000 francs, were donated to the badociation. District of the AfD, Lake Constance, in which the current leader of the group Weidel took part. The Bundestag has taken office. As a donation, the lender said: "Alice Weidel campaign donation".

The attorney of a political party, Martin Morlok, said that he "undoubtedly" acted out of an illegal donation to a party because it comes from there. outside the European Union ". The legislator prohibits such donations abroad because it "does not want to be fired from abroad with funds of a political nature". Donations over 50,000 euros should be reported immediately to the parliamentary administration and published immediately. The name may have been intended to circumvent this rule.

Context of the uncertain gift

At the request of the research network, Weidel explained that in September 2017, she had heard about the "unsolicited" donation and then asked for a refund. There were "concerns about legality". The refund was only made in April 2018. Weidel said that she had trusted the Treasurer's good treatment with the gift. It also has "no information" on the antecedents of the pharmaceutical company, its owner and the motivations of the donation.

The Greens and the SPD called for an immediate clarification of the potentially illegal major donation from Switzerland. All the facts must be on the table, "said the Green Party Parliamentary Executive Director, Britta Hbadelmann, of the" Handelsblatt ". Leni Breymaier, leader of the SPD in Baden-Wuerttemberg, and Johannes Kahrs, director general of the SPD, demanded Weidel's resignation if the donation was illegal. From their own ranks, there was a cautious criticism of the leader of the AFD faction.

Criticism of his own party

Ralf Özkara, head of the AfD in Baden-Wuerttemberg, had learned through the media of the eventual existence of such a story and then opened an investigation. Asked about the process, he said that the state badociation "from 2017, there is no report of responsibility of the Lake Constance District".

Nevertheless, Özkara said: "All those who knew that such a gift had been made bear the responsibility for this major gift." If Weidel knew it, she badumed the "primary responsibility". If the donation is illegal, he expects Weidel to "resign from all mandates and functions".

LobbyControl, a nonprofit committed to greater transparency in political decision-making, called the flow of funds from Switzerland "unacceptable". Weidel could not pose as a designated beneficiary, said Ulrich Müller of LobbyControl Sunday evening. This is already the third case of questionable money flows from Switzerland. "For years, the AfD has benefited from millions of aid campaigns run by an agency in Switzerland," Müller said.