According to a court ruling, the AfD is to pay a fine of around 108,000 euros to the Bundestag administration for an illegally received donation.
According to its own statement on Wednesday, the administrative court in Berlin rejected a lawsuit by the AfD against the fine imposed by the Bundestag administration and cited a violation of a ban on accepting donations in the party law as the reason.
Because of the fundamental importance of the matter, the court allowed the appeal.
The AfD is considering taking action against the judgment (judgment of the 2nd chamber of February 16, 2022, Az. VG 2 K 213/20).
The background: In February 2016, an event with the European group of European Conservatives and Reformists (EKR) was originally planned in the Düsseldorf Congress Center, the court said.
Marcus Pretzell, member of the European Parliament at the time and spokesman at the time for the state association of the AfD North Rhine-Westphalia, also belonged to the EKR.
However, the EKR canceled shortly before the start of the congress.
Instead, according to the court, it was carried out under the banner of the AfD.
According to the court, the invoiced costs of the event of more than 36,000 euros were paid by a PR company based in Switzerland.
In November 2020, the Bundestag administration imposed a fine of around 108,000 euros because the PR company was not the real donor and it was an anonymous donation.
The AfD sued against the penalty.
She announced on Wednesday that she would stand by her statement that the congress was not a party event and that it was therefore not an illegal party donation.