The AfD emphasizes that espionage must be “clarified and stopped with all severity.” Nevertheless, the party wants to stick to its European election top candidate Krah. The espionage affair will be discussed in the Bundestag on Thursday.
Maximilian Krah came to the Spree in the morning. In front of the Bundestag, the AfD’s leading candidate for the European elections speaks into half a dozen microphones: “I am and remain the leading candidate. It is now about us focusing the election campaign again on European issues and moving away from this ultimately very unpleasant matter.”
The “unpleasant matter” is the suspicion of espionage against one of his employees. He is now in custody. The Federal Prosecutor General accuses him of passing on information to the Chinese secret service.
“It’s a very serious accusation,” says Krah. “After the arrest warrant was confirmed today, I will terminate the employee today.” Krah had consulted with the AfD party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla in the Bundestag that morning. The top candidate then canceled his appearance at the start of the European election campaign next weekend.
Krah has been criticized for a long time
Weidel and Chrupalla did not say how they felt about Krah’s candidacy after the crisis meeting behind closed doors. They leave the meeting room in the Bundestag without a word. A written statement will come later. Four sentences long, trying to keep the distance:
Any influence by foreign states through espionage, but also attempts to buy opinions and positions, must be investigated and strictly prevented.
In the AfD, however, the astonishment at the allegations seems to be limited. Krah has long been criticized for being too friendly towards China and Russia. At the end of last year, the US Federal Police FBI questioned him about possible money payments from Russia during a visit to the USA.
Von Notz: Right-wing extremists as “alliance partners of autocracies”
The allegations against the AfD don’t come as a surprise to Konstantin von Notz either: “They’re trying to badmouth the place and take responsibility through elections in order to undermine and abolish democracy,” said Notz. “That’s why these right-wing extremist parties are the natural alliance partner of the world’s autocracies.”
The Green party deputy is chairman of the parliamentary control committee in the Bundestag, which is supposed to control the secret services. He has long been warning about China and Russia’s attempts to influence and their connections to right-wing extremist parties in Europe.
Scholz: “Very, very, very worrying”
How seriously the federal government takes the espionage allegations will become clear in the afternoon. “I find what we learned very, very, very worrying.” Olaf Scholz emphasizes how important counterintelligence is. From the Federal Chancellor’s point of view, it is running successfully. You can see from the recent arrests that this is working quite well. “And that should spur us on to do everything we can to get to the bottom of everyone who is spying against us and our security.”
Tomorrow the traffic light wants to put the allegations against the AfD on the agenda of the Bundestag. Everyone should be able to get an idea, explains Green Party internal politician von Notz: “The most effective means of all is that such scandals have consequences and people see that the AfD does not stand up for the interests of Germany, but for those of foreign powers.”
The MPs want to discuss it for an hour. And don’t allow the AfD to draw a line in the sand.
Björn Dake, ARD Berlin, tagesschau, April 24, 2024 4:01 p.m