Since entering parliament in 2017, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has had to pay around €1.1 million for numerous violations of the Political Parties Act, according to the Berlin-based legislature's administration, reported dpa.
Parties represented in the Bundestag, the lower house, have paid a total of €1.8 million since 2017 for accepting illegal donations, providing false information in financial reports, or misusing parliamentary group funds, according to a report in Sunday's edition of Die Welt newspaper seen in advance by dpa.
The list of violations was also made available to dpa.
According to the Bundestag, the AfD was mainly affected by illegal donations from the Swiss company Goal AG for election advertising in the 2016 state polls in Baden-Württemberg and 2017 in North Rhine-Westphalia, and an almost €400,000 donation from Switzerland.
A further claim for just over €108,000 is not yet final. The AfD has filed a lawsuit against the decision and has since appealed to the Federal Administrative Court.
AfD cites initial lack of experience with donations
In comparison, the six other parties represented in the Bundestag had to make significantly fewer payments, the report said.
This ranged from €200,000 paid by the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) to just €2,300 by the pro-market Free Democratic Party (FDP).
In explaining the size of its fines, the AfD pointed to its short party history.
"Especially in the early years, the AfD was unable to draw on the wealth of experience in dealing with donations that other parties had accumulated over decades," its treasurer Carsten Hütter told Die Welt.
Today, every donation is strictly reviewed, there is a "six-eyes principle" of scrutiny, and intensive training for the party's branches, he said.
- Germany
- far-right AfD
- Fined
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
