Foreign espionage by the AfD
Krah’s office retrieved “locked” documents from the EU Parliament
April 27, 2024, 9:47 a.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
A close associate of AfD politician Maximilian Krah is believed to have been spying for China. A report suggests he may have passed on confidential EU Parliament documents. The AfD politician remains silent about the new allegations.
The office of AfD politician Maximilian Krah has accessed secret documents about the association of states’ foreign trade several times in the EU Parliament’s Trade Committee in recent years. This was the result of an internal investigation by the committee administration into the use of the committee’s so-called sharepoints, reports “Spiegel”. This gives MPs access to documents from the confederation.
In EU parliamentary committees, documents are classified into three levels of confidentiality. According to the evaluation of the committee administration, Krah’s office repeatedly requested documents that were classified as “sensitive” or “restricted”. These include, for example, analyzes of the foreign trade strategies of partner states or documents on the course of trade negotiations. According to the investigation, Krah’s office did not request any papers that were stamped “confidential.”
The analysis does not reveal whether the AfD politician personally or his assistants accessed the documents. According to “Spiegel”, Krah did not answer the question as to whether Jian G. had access to Sharepoint as an employee. However, other MPs are said to report that access for staff is common practice in parliament. Krah told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that he had checked whether Jian G. had had access to documents classified as secret. Result: negative.
Corrupted EU parliamentarians
On Monday, G., a close colleague of Krah’s, was arrested on suspicion of spying for China. He is accused of passing on information about negotiations in the EU Parliament and spying on Chinese opposition members in Germany.
Krah’s name has been mentioned for weeks in connection with the “Voice of Europe” affair. The Czech government imposed sanctions on the pro-Russian news site at the end of March because it believes it is a Kremlin influence operation. These allegations also concern Bundestag member Peter Bystron – another AfD politician who is running for the European elections.
According to “Spiegel”, EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola informed the group leaders a week and a half ago about the intelligence information available to the Czech, Polish and Belgian authorities. The Belgian security authorities are therefore convinced that they have sufficient evidence that foreign governments have paid money to EU parliamentarians.