Far-right AfD reels as German lawmakers slam party over espionage and corruption allegations

The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is in dire trouble as it deals with the fallout of allegations that two of its leading candidates for the European election have dodgy links to Russia and China.

. . .

The party is “betraying and selling out the German people,” Marc Henrichmann, a lawmaker for the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said. The AfD, he added, is a “right-wing party of treason.”

Dirk Wiese, a lawmaker belonging to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), accused the AfD of “feigned patriotism,” adding: “Maybe it’s not your own country that you love so much. Maybe it’s dictatorships like China, Russia and Belarus.”

The scathing criticism of the AfD comes after revelations on Wednesday that German public prosecutors in the city of Dresden had initiated preliminary investigations over allegations that Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s lead candidate for the European election, had accepted payments from Russia and China “for his work as an MEP.”

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