A data breach of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has exposed communications spanning from the party’s founding in 2013 through recent years, according to materials provided to media outlets by the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets. The leaked trove contains over 420,000 emails, documents, and personnel records, with the majority dated before 2019. The AFD confirmed a hosting provider was compromised in late September, with the party stating that only select mailboxes were accessed.
The documents reveal that AfD officials made deliberate efforts to establish political connections with the Trump administration beginning with his election in 2016. Communications show senior party figures, including current leader Alice Weidel and former leader Frauke Petry, moved quickly to send congratulatory messages to the incoming president. Internal emails document the party’s careful deliberation over messaging, with board members offering enthusiastic support for outreach. The materials also show subsequent courtship between AfD officials and Trump ideologist Steve Bannon. In a notable example, party officials proposed including a request in a January 2017 inauguration message asking Trump to support removing the “enemy state” clauses from the United Nations charter.
The AfD has grown significantly since its emergence following Germany’s 2015-2016 refugee intake. The party entered the Bundestag in 2017 with 12.6 percent of the vote, finished second in the February 2025 federal election with 20.8 percent, and currently leads national polls at approximately 30 percent. In September, the party achieved 43.8 percent in eastern Saxony-Anhalt state elections, prompting Trump to post congratulatory remarks on his Truth Social platform.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency monitors the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist organization, with five of its regional branches classified as confirmed extremist entities. The party’s Thuringia regional leader was convicted in 2024 of using Nazi paramilitary slogans. Nearly all other German political parties maintain a “firewall” policy refusing to govern in coalition with the AfD, though it is currently attempting to form Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI