For weeks, allegations of sleaze, nepotism, and corruption inside the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have dominated local media in Germany. Nepotism within the AfD has occurred at both state and federal level. The neo-fascist AfD is not known for being a political party free of infighting.

Unsurprisingly, what triggered the emergence of widespread nepotism was an internal party skirmish in the AfD of the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt – the next in line for elections. Current polling gives the AfD 40% of voter support.

The federal member and outspoken Trump supporter – and, through his assistant, the neo-fascist Marion Müller, an indirect participant in the infamous “Wannsee 2.0” meeting that planned ethnic cleansing in Germany – AfD apparatchik Jan Wenzel Schmidt first drew attention to “corruption” in his state in winter 2025/2026.

Subsequently, similar cases of corrupt conduct started to emerge – the AfD is “on the take,” known for receiving bribes or other improper payments. This is not limited to Saxony-Anhalt.

Corrupt conduct also extends deep into the West German state of Lower Saxony, where personal enrichment, payments to family members, and jobs for relatives are rife.

Several AfD minions – including apparatchik, migrant-hating racist Anja Arndt – compiled dossiers (better: dirt files) on their internal party enemies and called for tougher regulatory measures against party corruption. Meanwhile, the hypocrisy of the AfD knows no end. AfD propaganda portrays the neo-fascist AfD as an anti-establishment party fighting the corrupt system of Germany’s democratic parties.

The recent allegations of corruption might damage the AfD’s so-called credibility – what credibility? Neo-Nazis do not have credibility.

As background: in all German parliaments, members are prohibited from directly employing family members. The cunning AfD bypassed this by doing what became known as “cross-employment.” This is a grey area and is not expressly prohibited but indicates sleaze and corruption.

Here is the trick that worked for years until it blew up in the AfD’s face: relatives of elected apparatchiks are employed by other party colleagues and adjacent party friends – you get my daddy a job and I get your sister a job, etc. This circumvents regulations prohibiting the “direct” employment of one’s own family members in one’s own office.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the coalition government is set to tighten current regulations. Meanwhile, Bavaria’s state parliament has been named as a role model, as it expressly prohibits cross-employment.

When it comes to plundering the hated state, AfD apparatchiks in Germany’s federal parliament as well as in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt employ, on average, more staff than all other parties.

Up to 72 of the 151 AfD members in Germany’s federal parliament – about half the cohort – could be directly or indirectly involved in cross-employment schemes. The motto seems to be: extract whatever you can from the state before we take over the state and fill our coffers even more.

While the exact origin and mechanics of the AfD’s rip-off remain unclear, the course is clear. The first allegations of widespread nepotism and self-favouritism emerged in connection with an escalating power struggle within AfD Saxony-Anhalt.

In 2025, Jan Wenzel Schmidt was accused of unfair billing practices and dubious employment relationships connected to private-sector activities alongside his parliamentary duties. An internal AfD party procedure – “we investigate ourselves!” – is underway against Schmidt and Matthias Lieschke, who allegedly likes to record others illegally.

Party apparatchik Lieschke is said to have – secretly – recorded an internal party video conference and sent the recording to Schmidt. As a result, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt expelled Lieschke for what it considered seriously party-damaging behaviour.

By mid-December 2025, Schmidt himself made serious allegations against AfD leadership – his own people – in an email to the party’s state board in Saxony-Anhalt, stating: “Some belong in the dock and not on the government bench.” He accused his own AfD of “party-damaging behaviour.”

There were allegedly fabricated travel expenses and invoices, private trips undertaken under the pretext of parliamentary activities, and visits to the casino (Spielbank) Berlin on official trips. All of this was spiced up by systematic nepotism ranging from the employment of spouses, children, and siblings. Even an 85-year-old grandmother was reportedly included.

Schmidt also raised allegations of economic entanglements, private bankruptcies, and possible false information in elections and membership admissions such as “I am not a Neo-Nazi.” He accused fellow AfD figures including Martin Reichardt, Oliver Kirchner, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, Tobias Rausch, Jan Moldenhauer, Matthias Büttner, Gordon Köhler, and Philipp-Anders Rau – a sizable group, so far.

Some are leading candidates for the upcoming state election in Saxony-Anhalt, including the regional leader Ulrich Siegmund, who has drawn controversy for his far-right positions and for maintaining contact with Austrian Neo-Nazi Martin Sellner.

Federal apparatchik Kay Gottschalk offered to mediate and later remarked: “In the current situation, not even the Pope could mediate.” Battle lines inside the AfD are hardening.

Meanwhile, Ulrich Siegmund became a central figure in the corruption scandal. His father, Andreas Siegmund, was employed as office manager of AfD parliamentarian Kay-Uwe Ziegler from 2017 to 2021.

The web of cross-employment continues: Tobias Rausch’s siblings reportedly work for AfD parliamentarian Claudia Weiss; a brother-in-law works for another AfD MP; and his wife is also employed within the party structure. Rausch also took his future wife, Lisa Lehmann, on several “official” trips. Lehmann was initially an employee of Oliver Kirchner. The two married in October 2025.

Further up the hierarchy, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla employed the wife of fellow Saxon Roberto Kuhnert in his so-called “citizens’ office.”

Next in line, behind the AfD’s most prominent figure Björn Höcke – the Führer – and the official leaders Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, is Markus Frohnmaier, whose wife is employed as an office manager for Johann Martel. Frohnmaier confirmed the employment but rejected allegations of nepotism.

In Thuringia, the husband of AfD politician Wiebke Muhsal is employed by federal MP Stefan Schröder’ as a so-called “research assistant” (sic!). Schröder confirmed the employment, citing the employee’s academic qualifications. Muhsal herself was previously sentenced to a substantial fine over irregularities involving staff payments.

When all this – and more – emerged, the AfD’s leadership remained conspicuously silent. The scandal has the potential to harm the party’s carefully crafted image as an “alternative” to what it calls the corrupt establishment parties.

The AfD’s accusations of sleaze among Germany’s so-called “old parties” are now turning back on the AfD itself. Worse for the party, the corruption scandal is being used in internal power struggles – old scores settled by accusing rivals.

For example, Führer Björn Höcke’s criticism of figures within his own party may be an attempt to push the AfD further toward an uncompromising ideological course and to punish those accused of adapting to the hated system of German democracy.

In other words, an apparently well-structured “clan-like” system of nepotism is being used by party apparatchiks to maximise advantages and settle intra-party conflicts – the “moderate” far right versus the outright extremists.

On the back of these internal score-settling battles, the AfD has been hit hard by a scandal exposing practices it long accused others of. At the same time, the contradiction may be less surprising than it appears. Contempt for democratic processes and norms lies at the ideological core of the neo-fascist AfD.

It is therefore not surprising that the AfD does not adhere to usual standards when filling posts with friends and relatives. Yet there is also growing discontent within parts of the party and at the grassroots level – even though the AfD functions less as a grassroots movement and more as an apparatus feeding off fear amplified by its propaganda machine.

AfD figurehead Björn Höcke, often distant from the operational level of these scandals, stated: “We can only fail because of ourselves. But this failure is entering the realm of the possible.”

Facing an election, around 150 AfD members in Saxony-Anhalt called for a special party congress – a risky move from a public-relations perspective. Meanwhile, parliamentary managing director Bernd Baumann defended the party’s “employment practices,” citing recruitment problems. Out of 200 possible positions, he claimed, 71 could not be filled because potential applicants were reluctant to work for the AfD. Even if true – and this always a good question when the AfD is concerned – many Neo-Nazis, hooligans, skinheads, Reichsbürger etc. might simply be too stupid to work in an office of a moronic party like the neo-fascist AfD.

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