AfD leak: Von Storch called a party ban a "real danger" as early as 2017
A new Correctiv analysis of leaked AfD emails shows the party leadership has weighed the risk of a ban for years – including how to handle Martin Sellner's "remigration" concept.
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The AfD has been discussing the danger of a party ban internally for years, according to an analysis published on Wednesday by the investigative newsroom Correctiv. It is based on around 420,000 emails and attachments totalling more than 280 gigabytes that the hacker group Hexane took from AfD servers; the data runs from 2013 to September 2026. The party has confirmed the leak but did not comment on its contents. According to taz and Der Spiegel, parts of the data could be verified; how reliable the material is overall remains open.
On 17 January 2017, then deputy party leader Beatrix von Storch wrote to the federal board after the NPD ruling that a ban of the AfD was a "real danger", arguing the NPD had only escaped a ban because it was too small. In January 2026, according to Correctiv, the federal board asked Brandenburg state MP Lena Kotré to present the party's own remigration concept before a meeting with Martin Sellner, citing the risk of appearing to back a concept courts consider unconstitutional and "very high" legal costs.
Since July 2026, Stefan Möller, deputy leader of the Thuringian AfD and a close ally of Björn Höcke, has been in charge of dealing with the domestic intelligence service. Unlike his predecessor, he favours unity over expulsions, Correctiv writes. A motion by Höcke to soften the party's incompatibility list was not voted on at the last party congress; Alice Weidel promised the federal board would address it. No ban application has yet been filed by the federal government, the Bundestag or the Bundesrat.