Donation affair: AfD transfers 2.35 million euros to the Bundestag

In its most recent donation affair, the AfD predicts: The party has transferred 2.35 million euros to the Bundestag administration in order to avoid a possibly significantly higher penalty payment. This confirmed both the Bundestag administration and the AfD compared to the star and RTL/NTV.

The AfD had received the sum in the election campaign as a donation for a poster campaign – allegedly from Gerhard Dingler, a former politician of the right -wing populist FPÖ in Austria. But there were doubts about that.

Research by the “Spiegel” and the Austrian “Standard” fueled the suspicion that Dingler had only acted as a straw man in the million -dollar campaign. The Bundestag administration then initiated a test procedure.

There are now first findings. Accordingly, the authorities received a reference from the so -called “Financial Intelligence Unit” from Austria: The alleged donor Dingler is said to have received a transfer of an even higher amount from the real estate billiard Henning Conle shortly before the poster campaign starts. Conle comes from Duisburg, lives in Switzerland and is “as a supporter of the AfD” to the Bundestag administration.

“The Bundestag administration currently assumes that this donation is a forwarding or straw donation that is inadmissible under the Parties Act,” said the Bundestag administration when asked by star and RTL/NTV. According to the German Party Act, so -called straw man donations, in which the identity of the actual donor is disguised. They must therefore be forwarded to the Bundestag administration immediately. Since the AfD was not in possession of the donation money, it was granted a “reasonable deadline” to transfer the equivalent of the campaign.

The AfD continues to evaluate the process differently: “We still believe that it is not a straw man donation,” says Carsten Hütter, Federal Treasurer of the Party. The procedure for clarifying this matter has not yet been completed. “Just so that we would not have to pay twice or three times a penalty, if our disadvantage arises, we have parked the money from the Bundestag administration,” he explains the transfer of the approximately 2.35 million euros.

Dingler had always stated to the AfD that the money for the campaign comes from its assets and that the payment was not made on behalf of third parties.

But even if it turns out that the donor has deceived the AfD, the party would be obliged to forward the donation to the Bundestag administration. As a precaution, treasurer Hütter did this, but still says: “We are examining the entire process and cannot currently see that we are subject to payment.” If the Bundestag administration remained with its attitude when the procedure was concluded, he strongly assumes that the AfD will proceed legally to get around 2.35 million euros. In the end, however, the federal board must decide.

A so-called triple sanction, i.e. a penalty payment of the donation amount, now only threatens the AfD on one condition: the evaluation of the poster campaign as a straw man donation existed and the party could be demonstrated that she already knew about the donation.