AfD leak: File with more than 24,000 entries on alleged opponents

Leaked AfD data contains lists of political opponents and journalists, according to research by the newspaper taz. An anonymous hacker group this week published more than 400,000 emails as well as thousands of images and documents. According to taz, eleven mailboxes are affected, including those of Alexander Gauland and Leif-Erik Holm, co-leader of the party in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The data set exceeds 280 gigabytes and runs from March 2013 to September 2026. IT expert Lilith Wittmann considers the data authentic for now; Der Spiegel reported that parts have been confirmed.

Particularly sensitive, according to taz, is an Excel file with 24,521 entries including names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. In the correspondence, a spokesperson for the AfD in North Rhine-Westphalia referred to 2,000 names. The newspaper said it could not verify whether the people listed were actually antifascists. The report also says officials at the party's 2017 national congress in Hanover discussed how to deal with a photographer who had posed as a Bild photographer; his name was marked in red on a media list. Journalists from SWR, Milano Finanza and DuMont were listed there as left-wing activists.

According to taz, the emails also document expulsion proceedings over Nazi symbols, for example against a former member who allegedly sold a flag with swastika symbolism at an AfD stand. The material also reflects the power struggle in the North Rhine-Westphalia AfD between state leader Martin Vincentz and Bundestag member Matthias Helferich, whose expulsion the party's federal arbitration court overturned in the summer. The report contains no official party statement on the findings. According to t-online, the AfD has filed a criminal complaint over the data leak.