The rude behavior of its mysterious gonner is costing the afd dearly: because of the acceptance of illegal donations, the party now has to pay a total fine of 402.900 euros. This is what the bundestag administration decided, as it announced.
Specifically, the case involves assistance from the swiss advertising agency goal AG for the current federal chairman jorg meuthen and federal board member guido reil in state parliament election campaigns in 2016 and 2017. Both politicians are at the top of the afd’s list of candidates for the european elections on 26 june. May. First "spiegel online" and the "taz" had reported on the penalty payment.
The party announced that it would file a complaint against the two decisions with the administrative court. She is of the opinion that the services of goal AG were not "donations in the sense of the party law".
Meuthen had already announced earlier that his party would proceed against penalty payments, if necessary, through all judicial instances. She had not done anything illegal. At the same time, the afd’s federal executive board has decided to set aside one million euros because of the threat of fines.
Meuthen had told the "welt" in march that he himself had received support services such as posters, flyers and advertisements with an equivalent value of 89 euros from swiss goal AG at the beginning of 2016 in the baden-wurttemberg state parliament election campaign.800 euros received, which the bundestag administration considers to be illegal donations.
In the case of afd federal executive committee member guido reil, who was also supported by goal AG during the NRW state parliament election campaign the following year, the bundestag administration alleges unlawful contributions of 44.500 euros from.
The bundestag administration has now declared that "these monetary donations were not allowed to be accepted by the afd, as the donors were not identifiable at the time the donations were accepted". In both cases, a fine of three times the amount of the improperly accepted donations had been imposed.
Meuthen spoke of a "legally erroneous position" and announced his objection. "Our complete rehabilitation even before the election is to be prevented just."
Further fines could be imposed on the afd because of contributions of around 132.000 euros from switzerland to the district association bodensee of the faction leader alice weidel to come. The bundestag is also investigating these donations for weidel’s federal election campaign. German parties were not allowed to accept donations from gonners who are not eu citizens.
In addition, the bundestag administration has requested information from the party about a further donation to weidel’s district association in the amount of 38 euros.000 demanded. According to research by "spiegel" and "report mainz," a businessman from antwerp, a pensioner from mulheim an der ruhr and a woman from duisburg were named as the senders of the letters. The afd has since asked them to confirm that they donated the money themselves and not on behalf of a third party.
According to the report, one of these alleged donors also appears on lists of alleged financiers of the advertising campaigns for meuthen and reil.