The AFD is said to have received generous support from the "Association for the Preservation of the Rule of Law and Civil Liberties" in 2017 before the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia. As the ZDF format "Frontal 21" and the search center "Corrective" report, the association is said to have supported the party with hundreds of thousands of advertising newspapers and posters.
Accordingly, the AfD state director in North Rhine-Westphalia, Andreas Keith, informed the District Association of Essen a few weeks before the election about the help. "We already have a commitment that before the election weekend, either in front of it, or a week before an extra sheet in the amount of 4.1 million pieces will appear," "Frontal 21" quotes a letter that Keith end of March 2017 to the Essenes AFD leadership should have written.
"In addition to the billboards in Essen, there will be a nationwide advertising," said Keith. The national association would therefore have refrained from spending on newspaper advertisements and flyers in Essen.
Keith denies the process. He had "at no time from the distribution of an extra sheet" known and "not announced." The addressee of the letter, the Essen AFD member of parliament Stefan Keuter, doubts, according to "Frontal 21" the authenticity of the document and denies having known of a commitment of the association for election advertising.
The federal executive of the party said that the campaign was an independent "parallel action". No authoritative representative of the party was ever concerned with the 'whether' and 'how' of the action.
The interference by the club could be expensive for the AfD. The distribution of the electoral leaflet is to be regarded as covert party donation, quoted "Frontal 21" the Dusseldorf party researcher Martin Morlok. For disguising donations, parties must pay fines of three donations. The estimated 4.1 million campaign leaves could have cost according to the ZDF magazine around 600,000 euros - the party threatens such a fine in the millions.
In mid-April, the Bundestag administration had pronounced a fine of more than 400,000 euros against the AfD because of dubious campaigning from Switzerland. The district association of the Thuringian AFD boss Björn Höcke is also examined by the Bundestag administration. Participants' contributions and donations for the annual meeting of the right-wing national "wing" should have been paid into an account of the Kreisverband Nordthüringen-Eichsfeld-Mühlhausen. Höcke is chairman of the district association.