Instead of complaining about unfair reporting, calling it a conspiracy or simply not commenting, as is usually the strategy for crisis management, the AFD leadership held an extra meeting today.
The top candidate for the EU elections had to go to Berlin and in the end the assistant who was accused of espionage was fired.
It is a sign that the party leadership takes the situation seriously.
The AFD assistant allegedly spied for China
The background is as follows: the party’s EU top, Maximilian Krah, hired in 2019 a man named by the German prosecutors as Jian G. According to the public service channel ARD, Jian G. moved to Germany from China in 2002 to study at a university in Berlin and when Krah hired him, he had become a German citizen and owned a firm that traded goods with China.
But according to sources, Jian G. should already have worked for the Chinese Ministry of State Security – in other words, China’s security service.
When Krah became an Alternative for Germany MEP, Jian G accompanied him to meetings in Brussels and Strasbourg. According to prosecutors, over the past five years he has been sending information to China from such meetings, as well as spying on Chinese dissidents living in Germany.
Until yesterday when the police made a dawn raid on his apartment in Dresden. Today he was formally arrested.
Second scandal in a short time
At the beginning of April, the Czech security service came out with dramatic information: it had revealed that the website “Voice of Europe” had paid people to spread pro-Russian propaganda.
One of those who is said to have been paid – around two hundred thousand kroner – was AFD’s second candidate for the EU parliamentary elections, Petr Bystron. According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel, there are audio recordings in which Bystron – who moved to Germany from the Czech Republic as a child – allegedly complained that the payments came in 200-euro notes, which were difficult to use in Germany.
Two different scandals, two different reactions
There is a difference in the party’s reaction to the scandals that affect AFD’s first candidate for the EU elections and what affects the second.
In the case of Bystron, the accusations hit him directly, but for the AFD leadership and many of AFD’s voters, it is not seen as so serious. AFD is largely pro-Russian. That a high-ranking person in the party was paid to express something that many members already think can be handled in the usual way: call it an undemocratic attack on the party and its members or a conspiracy between politicians and the security services.
The situation around Krah is more problematic, despite the fact that it is a co-worker who has been detained, not himself. To begin with, many, even within AFD, wonder why he hired Jian G, who had no political background. In addition, Krah has often in recent years defended China, argued against sanctions and called accusations of human rights violations in the country “made up”.
But the big difference is that, unlike in the case of Putin and Russia, there is no strong sympathy for China within the AFD. Therefore, the party now reacts more strongly when it comes to Krah than Bystron. Jian G is fired and even if Krah will continue as the top candidate for the EU elections, he will not play a prominent role in the election campaign.
For a party like AFD, it’s a real puddling and it shows that the leadership is shaken. The plan to become the second largest German party in the elections to the European Parliament may be under threat.