Reports on AfD: Swiss pharmaceutical company should have donated funds for "business friend"

The company about which the money should have flowed to the AfD is called "PWS Pharmawholesale International AG" - a small company from Zurich, which deals mainly with dietary supplements. PWS is now in the center of the donation scandal of the AfD.

According to several media reports, the equivalent of more than 130,000 euros were transferred from a PWS account to the AfD district of Lake Constance by party leader Alice Weidel. The case is particularly explosive because party donations from non-EU countries may not be accepted under German law.

WDR, NDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung", who had first reported on the donation, now quote the PWS board of directors: The managing director of the company had therefore done the transfer "in trust for a business friend". He did not know that it was an account of the AfD - although in the intended use "election donation for Alice Weidel" was.

According to WDR, NDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung", the board of directors of PWS only wanted to do a favor to a business friend. To the identity of this friend, he apparently made no statements. Also the Swiss "Tagesanzeiger" reports about it.

Weidel rejects responsibility

Meanwhile, Weidel himself had no responsibility whatsoever. "The account on which the donation was received, it is the ordinary account of the district association of Lake Constance," she said on Monday. "The donation did not go to my person." Personal consequences exclude them. Weidel responded to demands for resignation and increasing criticism of the donations.

Weidel said she has no information about the company, its owner or the motivation of the donor. She herself assumed that the review of legality was in good hands with the Landesschatzmeister. "So I did not see any need to be active in this matter." The entire sum was finally transferred back to the company. The repayment of the donations took place however only in April 2018.

The AfD district association Bodensee rejected the allegations. "The money went into an account of the district association.We never used it, first, because it was explicitly donated for the election campaign of Mrs. Weidel," said district association spokesman Christoph Högel the "Schwäbische Zeitung". The district association, however, like Weidel, had doubts about the legality of the donation. After completing the exam, the money was immediately returned to the donor. "It surprised me that this is coming up again", Högel continues.

Greens and SPD called for immediate education about the potentially illegal large donation. All facts must be on the table, said the parliamentary executive director of the Greens in the Bundestag, Britta Haßelmann, the "Handelsblatt". The AfD leader Alexander Gauland, Jörg Meuthen and Alice Weidel could "no longer be ignorant". "There has to be an end to disguise and excuses."