The scandal surrounding alleged nepotism in the AfD is spreading further: According to information from the taz, there are other cases in the EU Parliament in which members of parliament have employed close family members of other AfD politicians. The AfD itself likes to accuse the hated “old parties” of nepotism, greed and misappropriation of taxpayers’ money.
According to taz information, the Rhineland-Palatinate EU representative Alexander Jungbluth employs Reinhild Boßdorf, the daughter of his parliamentary group colleague Irmhild Boßdorf. However, this is delicate not only because of the family relationship, but also because her daughter is a long-time activist in the extreme right-wing Identitarian movement and its women’s organization Lucreta. Officially, the Identitarian Movement is on the party’s incompatibility list, but in practice this is often ignored.
Jungbluth is well connected within the party and right-wing radical fraternities and even sits on the party’s board as deputy federal treasurer. Boßdorf junior works as a “local assistant” for Jungbluth.
Another case concerns EU MP Mary Khan from the Brandenburg regional association. There were already grumblings within the AfD when it was standing for the EU elections because it is the partner of the federal executive board member and Potsdam state parliament member Dennis Hohloch. And because Khan himself hadn’t been completely truthful when she made the statement and had fibbed about her pending graduation. Even then, there were already allegations of nepotism against her partner Hohloch.
Accusations of nepotism not only in Saxony-Anhalt
Now Khan himself employs Ulrike Hohm. She in turn shares her last name and marriage vows Jean-Pascal Hohmthe head of the new AfD youth organization Generation Germany, also from the Brandenburg regional association.
In response to a taz query, Khan wrote that it was a “sideline job for a limited time.” She chose Ms. Hohm because she comes from Brandenburg and because she “values her professionally and personally – not because of her family connection to Mr. Hohm.” She rejects nepotism and abusive favoritism – “on the other hand, family relationships alone must not constitute a blanket exclusion criterion, as long as the employment is for understandable reasons.” Jungbluth, in turn, has not yet responded to a taz query.
The AfD Saxony-Anhalt in particular recently made numerous similar headlines because the father of the AfD’s top candidate for the state election, Ulrich Siegmund, is said to work for Thomas Korell, a member of the Bundestag from Saxony-Anhalt. And Siegmund’s father apparently received an impressive salary of over 7,000 euros, like that ZDF magazine “Frontal” researched. Siegmund doesn’t care much about that; in response, he crumpled up the printed press query and grinned in a social media video. The tenor is that you have nothing against hiring relatives; after all, you have to be able to trust them.
These are not the only allegations of this kind in Saxony-Anhalt: an internal party power struggle there is currently turning into a real mudslinging. The state executive board is seeking party expulsion proceedings against Bundestag member Jan Wenzel Schmidt for enrichment and breach of trust. He, in turn, defends himself by accusing the state executive of nepotism and private trips at state expense.
Incriminating writing
In a 15-page letter from Schmidt available to taz, he talks about a “poker round” that specifically demonized him within the regional association after he fell from grace. Here, too, he accuses several party friends of having provided family members with positions. These partially confirmed the employment to the Time, who first reported on the letter. It is said that they were hired because of their competence and not because of family relationships.
The letter also mentions trips at taxpayer expense to Greece, Disneyland near Paris and to a Young Republicans gala in New York. The letter does not contain any concrete evidence of the trips. However, this can certainly be interpreted as a threat, because he could provide further “detailed evidence,” writes Schmidt. The AfD regional association is still there left so far.
However, in the extreme right wing, the latest complications are anything but funny. This is what the new-right ideologist Götz Kubitschek from Saxony-Anhalt writes in light of the latest revelations: “But there is nothing to sugarcoat.” In his usual authoritarian style, he complains about “third-rate personnel from the old parties themselves,” “soldiers of fortune,” “smart people,” and “those who don’t have much discipline to counteract the all-too-human tendency to pig out.” He sums up that the damage has already been done and there is a crack in credibility – “Whitewashing is not enough, you have to clean up.”