After allegations
AfD European top candidate Krah wants to campaign again
Maximilian Krah at an election event in Holzkirchen, Upper Bavaria. photo
© Stefan Puchner/dpa
A former employee of the AfD MEP is said to have spied for China. Maximilian Krah rejects the allegations – and wants to resume the election campaign.
The AfD’s top European candidate, who came under pressure because of espionage allegations against an employee and the review of possible payments from China and Russia Maximilian Krah wants to resume the election campaign.
Krah rejected the allegations at an appearance in Holzkirchen, Upper Bavaria: “We are in the area of speculation and slander,” he said. His parliamentary immunity has not been lifted. From now on he will appear all over Germany. In the previous weeks, Krah had avoided the public.
In April it became public that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office was investigating one of Krah’s Chinese-born employees in the European Parliament on suspicion of espionage. At the end of April, the Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had initiated preliminary investigations into the question of possible payments from China and Russia to the AfD politician.
Preliminary investigations serve to clarify whether there is any initial suspicion of a possible crime – they cannot be equated with an investigation that is directed against specific defendants. “There’s nothing there,” said Krah.
The AfD event was actually supposed to take place in nearby Miesbach. However, the innkeeper there canceled at short notice, citing threats and hostility. An estimated 30 AfD supporters came to the new venue in a Holzkirchner tavern, and around 20 people took part in an Antifa counter-rally on the opposite side of the street. Apart from chanting, things remained quiet.