BERLIN, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Alice Weidel, a faction leader of Germany's far-right populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) was confirmed on Wednesday for using party donations from Switzerland to pay for her internet election campaign as well as a lawyer's bills.
Spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group Christian Lueth confirmed earlier reports by German media.
German newspaper FAZ reported that Weidel's electoral district had opened a bank account to which the donations from Switzerland were deposited. This bank account was also used to pay a media lawyer and an AfD employee who was responsible for Weidel's social media election campaign.
In the run-up to the last parliamentary election in 2017, Weidel's electoral district, the regional AfD branch of Lake Constance, had received 130,000 euros (147,000 U.S. dollars) from Switzerland, local media revealed last Sunday.
According to German law, party donations from non-EU countries are only permitted if they come from German citizens. Additionally, a party is also obliged to inform the German parliament immediately if it receives more than 50,000 euros from a single donor. The AfD allegedly tried to circumvent this law by dividing the donation into tranches of 9,000 Swiss francs (8,921 U.S. dollars).
Weidel has acknowledged that the donation had been received but stressed that the money had been returned to the donor in April 2018 after the regional branch voiced concerns over the legality of the payment.
Public prosecutor Andreas Mathy confirmed to the German magazine Spiegel on Wednesday that a lawsuit based on the donation surrounding Weidel had been filed by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician Leon Hahn who ran as candidate for the same regional electoral district as Weidel. Enditem
