Exposed e-mails from the German AfD party reveal possible irregularities

A analysis of more than 400,000 ‘e-mails’ from the far-right Alternative party to Germany (AfD), exposed this week by a cyber attack, revealed possible irregularities committed by party members, reported today the EFE agency.

The Spanish news agency indicates that investigations by public radio and television stations NDR and WDR revealed that AfD co-leader Alice Weidel had been informed long before admitting it publicly of donations received by the party in 2017 which were subsequently considered illegal.

The main party of the German opposition announced on Tuesday that it was the subject of a computer attack that exposed the content of e-mail messages from members of the political organization.

The attack “against a party’s ‘web’ accommodation service provider”, which occurred in September 2026, “was detected and quickly interrupted and all users were subsequently informed,” said the party, adding that “the AfD federal organization’s ‘e-mail’ accounts were not affected”, and that an investigation was ongoing.

When the donation scandal broke out in 2018, Weidel, then an up-and-coming star, said she was unaware of the details of campaign funding and was only aware of the transactions weeks after they occurred, EFE said.

But among the messages now revealed are some written by politics in 2017, where precise instructions will be given to trusted people, warning them in advance about donations, which began to arrive four days later, in 18 plots, originating from Switzerland and totaling 132,000 euros.

In 2021, the criminal prosecution against Weidel for alleged violation of the Political Party Act was filed for lack of evidence that illegal donations had been organized, but the AfD had to pay a fine of 400,000 euros for not rejecting them.

The exposed ‘e-mails’ also revealed the personal data of thousands of young voters in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region (northeast) requested by AfD to regional authorities before the recent September elections.

The region's Data Protection Commissioner, Sebastian Schmidt, confirmed this week to Handelsblatt that he opened several lawsuits to investigate whether any civil servants violated the data protection law by providing that information.

Details were also known about the journey of seven far-right politicians, including four members of parliament, to Syria in 2018, when the country was led by former President Bashar al-Assad.

“ The messages exchanged at the time about the trip indicate that it was highly controversial within the party, as it was not agreed with the leadership, and even suggest that it was organized with the help of the [Iran-backed Shia movement] Hezbollah and the Russian secret services,” EFE writes.