“A shame for our country” – the words in the Bundestag towards the AfD were clear. After the espionage affair, Ampel and Union accused the party of endangering Germany’s security. The AfD rejected this.
The AfD had to face severe criticism in the Bundestag because of alleged contacts with Russia and China. For example, SPD interior expert Dirk Wiese said in a current hour that the party represents “a security risk for our country, a threat to our democracy and a danger to peace and security.”
He accused the AfD of “feigned patriotism”. “Isn’t it perhaps your own country that you love so much, isn’t it perhaps dictatorships like China, Russia and Belarus,” Wiese asked the AfD group. “When it comes to lining your own pockets, your principles suddenly don’t matter as much anymore.”
“AfD is a disgrace for our country”
The deputy FDP parliamentary group leader, Konstantin Kuhle, demanded that the AfD party leadership ask Europe’s top candidate Maximilian Krah and second-placed Petr Bystron to withdraw. “The AfD willingly throws itself at dictators and autocrats; it rewards corrupt and criminal characters with top positions,” said Kuhle. “We have to say it very clearly: the AfD is a weak point in democracy.”
The deputy parliamentary group leader of the Greens, Konstantin von Notz, also made it clear: “Your shop, Mr. Chrupalla, serves the Russian president. The political role model of your party is the Communist Party in China,” he said. “All of this is becoming clearer every day and all of this shows that the AfD is a disgrace for this house and for our entire country.” Krah and Bystron were at the top of the AfD candidate list for the European elections on June 9th “not despite, but because of their proximity to the dictatorship.”
CDU MP Marc Heinrichmann accused the party of: “They are betraying and selling out the German people.” Dubious contacts with Russia and China are widespread in the AfD, and it is also about an “organizational failure” for which the party leadership ultimately bears responsibility.
AfD sees no “legal evidence”
AfD politicians, on the other hand, tried to downplay the espionage affair in the office of their top candidate, Maximilian Krah. Krah is “unreachable” for the AfD’s political opponents, said MP Stefan Keuter in the Bundestag. There is no “court-proof evidence” of wrongdoing. The party’s leadership did not speak in the Bundestag today.
This week, an employee of the AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, was arrested on charges of spying for China. Petr Bystron, second on the list, is suspected of accepting money from Russia.