German lawmaker Maximilian Krah, the front-runner for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in June’s European elections, says he is expected to return to the campaign trail despite being embroiled in a foreign influence scandal.
German police arrested his former assistant Jian Guo on suspicion of espionage on April 22, and Krah fired him following allegations that the parliamentary aide was spying for China.
Krah himself is currently the subject of a preliminary investigation by German prosecutors into potential payments from Russia and China, and whether any payments may have influenced his work in the European Parliament.
The second candidate on the party’s electoral ticket, Petr Bystron, was also the target of intense scrutiny for alleged links to pro-Russian networks.
AfD’s top candidate Krah, who sits on the European Parliament’s trade committee, again rejected the allegations during an event in the Bavarian market town of Holzkirchen on Saturday.
“We are moving into the realm of speculation and defamation,” he said, referring to the scandals.
His parliamentary immunity has not been lifted, highlighted Krah, whose European Parliament office was raided in connection with the investigation into Jian Guo earlier this week.
After canceling several public appearances in recent weeks, Krah said he would again take part in campaign events across Germany.
Saturday’s event was originally supposed to take place at a pub in the nearby town of Miesbach. However, the owner canceled the meeting at short notice, citing threats and hostility towards his plans to organize an AfD event.
Around 30 AfD supporters attended the new location in a Holzkirchen pub, while around 20 people took part in a counter-demonstration on the opposite side of the street, which passed peacefully.
