A July 2017 email from Alice Weidel about promised donations for a social media campaign came four days before the first transfer in a later AfD funding case, a joint media review found.
The review by ZDF, Der Spiegel and Der Standard, with technical assistance from OCCRP, said the email was dated July 10, 2017. Court records show the first of 17 payments arrived July 14. The email did not name a donor or an amount, so its timing does not establish that Weidel knew about those specific Swiss-linked transfers.
The €132,005.52 in payments went from two Swiss companies to AfD’s Bodensee district branch. Weidel later said she first learned of the money in September 2017, the review reported. NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung first reported the payments in November 2018.
The Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg ruled on March 2, 2023, that the donor could not be identified when the party accepted the payments. It upheld the Bundestag administration’s €396,016.56 payment claim against the AfD. The party argued the money was a personal donation to Weidel; the court found it had passed through a party account. The AfD bears the penalty.
The joint review also reported that prosecutors closed an investigation into Weidel, finding insufficient grounds to suspect she helped conceal the donor or coordinated with that person. A spokesperson for Weidel told ZDF that she had discussed donations with potential supporters but had not expected specific amounts or payments from a Zurich pharmaceutical company.
The AfD said on Oct. 20 that data had been copied in a cyberattack. EconoTimes previously covered the breach at the party’s hosting provider. In a statement the next day, the party said staff would not address whether alleged contents of the leak were genuine and urged people not to use or distribute the material. ZDF said some messages in the leak carried digital signatures that could be checked.
