The party’s other national leader, Tino Chrupalla, said party politicians had done nothing to violate German law, but nevertheless acknowledged the practice of employing relatives left a “bad taste” in voters’ mouths.
A few days later, however, he admitted in a post on X that he employs the wife of an AfD state parliamentarian.
‘Fake news’
One of the most prominent AfD politicians implicated in the nepotism accusations is Ulrich Siegmund, the party’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, where it is polling in first place at around 40 percent.
It’s here that AfD leaders are hoping to take real governing power for the first time since the party was founded in 2013. They’re targeting an absolute majority win in an election set for Sept. 6.
Siegmund’s father earns about €92,000 a year as an employee of national AfD lawmaker Thomas Korell, according to the public television investigation in which the allegations first surfaced. Korell also employs both parents of another AfD lawmaker from Saxony-Anhalt, according to the report.
Korell’s office declined to respond to questions from POLITICO on the employment of relatives, citing privacy regulations.