Baden-Württemberg treasurer burdened AfD in donation scandal

According to a report, the AfD national management has made misleading statements to the Bundestag administration in the Swiss donation scandal. The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ) quoted from a letter of December, in which the AfD head has argued that the treasurer of the district of Lake Constance, Brigitte Hinger, were on January 21, 2018 "the first doubt on the admissibility of donations from the Switzerland ". The AfD treasurer of Baden-Württemberg, Frank Kral, has now contradicted that.

Kral told the FAZ that he had already informed Hinger by phone on 14 August 2017 about "the legal regulations for donations from Switzerland". He said, "that these may only be accepted if they come from the income or property of a German or EU citizen."

As early as November, SPIEGEL had reported on an e-mail that Kral had sent to the state executive committee. In it he wrote that Hinger had signaled to him on the phone that she knew the donor. He had informed her that she could accept the donation only if a German citizen was behind it.

Hinger denies the report that the phone call. On 14 August 2017, she had "certainly not" talked to Kral about the subject, saying that he "never" called her on the donation topic. In a made by Hinger "history" of the affair, the "FAZ" is present, also no phone call with Kral on 14 August mentioned. However, the newspaper quoted from an e-mail Hingers from the same day in which she asks Kral "to call me back", she had already talked to him on the theme of donation "on tape".

For the next day Hinger therefore recorded an e-mail from Kral, in which he wrote that he had "answered their questions about the donations", which was from Kral's point of view, an indication of a telephone conversation yet taken place.

Timing is crucial

The donation scandal concerns donations to the AfD district association Bodensee. NDR, WDR and "Süddeutsche Zeitung" had revealed in November that this before the federal election in 2017 had received more than 132,000 euros from a Swiss company. Party donations from non-EU states are illegal in principle, so the public prosecutor's office in Constance initiated investigations. The county association Bodensee had paid back the money, but only months after the entrance to the account.

The time when Hinger recognized the illegality of the donation is central. The AfD builds on their defense. There was no "culpable hesitation" in the return transfer of the illegal donations, because the party is entitled to a test period of "two to three months" after receiving a donation, argues the party leadership. According to AfD, this deadline can not start until January 2018, when the district treasurer allegedly "first doubt" came.

By an enlightening phone call in August 2017, however, the set by the AfD itself deadline of three months would have been far exceeded. If Hinger had already been informed about "the legal regulations for donations from Switzerland" then eight months would have passed until the money was repaid on April 13, 2018.