The former AfD chairwoman Frauke Petry raises serious allegations against the current top staff of the party - it is about the acceptance of illegal party donations and the influence of the donors on the politicians.
"How the AfD presented itself to the voters was no longer determined by them as politicians or members of parliament, but rather by those who corrupted them with money," says an excerpt from Petry's announced book "Requiem for the AfD", which the portal "t- online.de ”published on Tuesday.
After accepting hidden donations, the party chairman Jörg Meuthen defected to the now disbanded right wing, Petry claims.
Bundestag faction leader Alice Weidel, the top candidate in the federal election, gave up her opposition to the Thuringian AfD politician and former leader of the "wing" Björn Höcke and subsequently received money.
Petry raises the same accusation against the AfD member of the European Parliament, Guido Reil.
The early AfD press spokeswoman Dagmar Metzger also had “apparently inexhaustible sources of money”.
Allegations come from Petry's new book
According to Petrys, the money flowed from networks around the billionaire Baron August von Finck Junior, his company Degussa Goldhandel and the billionaire Henning Conle.
Both men have been mentioned several times in reports of covert donations to the AfD.
According to a report on Tuesday, Petry told the ZDF program “Frontal21” and the research network Correctiv: “I am aware that Jörg Meuthen has channeled illegal donations from Henning Conle past the official party committees into illegal channels, among other things to support the social -Media appearance of the party. "
The money that flowed through the Swiss Goal AG was primarily intended to strengthen the AfD's Facebook presence for the federal election.
According to ZDF and Correctiv, Meuthen did not want to comment on donations from Conle.
Petry was one of the founding chairmen of the AfD and later led the party together with Meuthen. Shortly after the 2017 federal election, she resigned from the party and parliamentary group. She founded the Blue Party, but it disbanded at the end of 2019. Petry has announced that it will withdraw from politics after the general election in September.