Jan van Aken, head of the Left Party, has urged the German federal parliament’s administration to carry out a comprehensive review of alleged nepotism within the AfD parliamentary group. The call is driven by reports that, in the AfD faction of the Saxony‑Anhalt state parliament, family members were allegedly hired across faction offices and MPs’ offices and funded with public money.
“If corrupt AfD officials throughout the country are supplying their relatives with party jobs, that is the worst form of clique crime” Van Aken told the “Bild”. “When this happens in so many state branches, it points to a systemic problem that must be uncovered, even at the federal level”.
He demands that the Bundestag administration scrutinise every employment contract held by AfD MPs and their staff for familial connections. “If relatives were employed, they must be dismissed, and the AfD faction must immediately repay the misappropriated employee allowance to the state” Van Aken said. He also called for a ban on so‑called “cross‑over contracts” that conceal conflicts of interest, both in the Bundestag and in state parliaments.
In addition, Van Aken wants the federal administration to examine external contracts awarded to the AfD faction, to determine whether relatives are involved and, as he puts it, “have let themselves be lavishly paid”.
