For days, a team of SPIEGEL colleagues has been working through the material that hackers have taken from AfD mailboxes and made available online using a research network. This takes time, the data set is around 284 gigabytes in size, and includes more than 420,000 emails and over 48,000 documents. Their authenticity must be checked, content must be researched, and those affected must be confronted.
Now there are the first, exciting results of a donation affair that went back a few years and became a problem for today's AfD leader Alice Weidel. And now it may become a problem again.
In 2017, Weidel's AfD district association from Switzerland received an illegal large donation of 132,000 euros, divided into several tranches. The money was intended to finance the federal election campaign of the then top candidate Weidel. According to a court ruling, the AfD later had to pay a fine of 400,000 euros. Weidel always maintained that he had done nothing wrong. She survived the affair - and became party leader.
Now emails and documents about the case, which SPIEGEL, ZDF and the Austrian “Standard” evaluated together, suggest that Weidel obviously deceived the public and his own party. Accordingly, the AfD politician probably knew about the payments earlier than previously claimed. Apparently she expected the donations to arrive, and the origin of the money was apparently known early on in those around her.
Weidel doesn't want to know anything about it. Confronted with the findings from the data leak, her spokesman explains that the AfD leader is not revising "any of her statements in the case." Whether that's enough to keep the matter down remains to be seen.
In any case, we can be curious to see what else the data leak brings to light.
The CSU started its party conference today. More than 1,000 delegates and guests will be sitting together in Munich until tomorrow. To start with, of course, the boss speaks. After the 83 percent setback in last year's re-election, Markus Söder can take things in a relaxed manner this time. There are no elections.
And anyway: After the Söder twilight seemed to have broken a few months ago, the Bavarian Prime Minister has caught himself again. Doner is a thing of the past, the new Söder presents himself seriously, as the coalition's stability anchor and the chancellor's hidden reserve.
The star of the party conference, Söder has to come to terms with that, is likely to be someone else anyway - even though the agenda does not provide for a major appearance for her. It's about Ilse Aigner, top candidate for the office of Federal President. The CSU boss himself has proclaimed the President of the Bavarian State Parliament as the ideal person to succeed Frank-Walter Steinmeier - and in doing so has praised away a dangerous competitor in the Free State. Since then, there have been more and more supporters for Aigner across all party lines. Only the Chancellor and his CDU are cautious. Because you would like to suggest someone from your own ranks.
France cannot calm down. A man apparently fired a gun randomly at passers-by from a car in several towns near Paris today. He killed one person and injured several others. The police were able to arrest a suspect. The investigating authorities are checking whether the crime has a terrorist background.
The attack hits France in an already tense situation. After the violent excesses in many cities last weekend, the country is preparing for new, nationwide protests tomorrow, Saturday. Officially, this includes, among other things, a shortage of teachers, high costs of living and stagnating wages. However, there is great concern about renewed riots and looting.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced today that the police would take tough action this time. 70,000 emergency services have been mobilized, including special and elite units, and armored vehicles and water cannons are also available. Exit restrictions and bans on demonstrations in sensitive places, such as in the immediate inner city areas, are intended to help keep the situation under control.
Let's hope it succeeds. Let's hope reason prevails. On all sides.
Star extra: The British singer Charli xcx, 34, gets a cameo in the new film by Martin Scorsese, 83. As the industry service "Variety" reports, the pop star will have a cameo in "What Happens at Night". Which part she will play exactly is still a secret. The main roles in the gothic psychodrama based on the novel by Peter Cameron are played by Jennifer Lawrence, 36, and Leonardo DiCaprio, 51.
This isn't the first time Scorsese and Charli xcx have worked together. The Oscar winner was most recently seen alongside designer Marc Jacobs and musician John Cale on the cover of her album “Music, Fashion, Film”.
Could you watch the documentary “Being Sebastian Vettel”, which has been available in the ARD media library since yesterday. The four-part series follows the most successful German Formula 1 driver after Michael Schumacher from his beginnings in karting, through his promotion to the top motorsport class, his four world championship titles with the Red Bull racing team, the end of his career in the Aston Martin in 2022 and Sebastian Vettel, who is looking for new tasks beyond the racetrack.
Especially because of the last part, the documentary is also interesting for those who don't care much for car racing. Because Vettel, now 39 years old, is now an environmental activist. How does this work? How does the old life on the accelerator fit in with the new one as an ambassador for the mobility transition? In search of an answer to this question, the former Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck even has his say.
A lovely evening. Warmly
Yours, Philipp Wittrock, author in the SPIEGEL capital office
