ELECTION MEDDLING FEARS
An AfD spokesman described the allegations as “very disturbing” and said the party had no further information on the case.
The party has summoned the MEP to Berlin, with the AfD’s co-leader Alice Weidel promising a statement “on Wednesday at the latest” on the allegations.
Krah said he had found out about his assistant’s arrest from the press.
“Spying for a foreign state is a serious allegation. Should the allegations prove to be true, this would result in an immediate termination of employment,” he said in a statement.
The arrest plunges the anti-Islam, anti-immigration AfD into further turmoil.
Krah was himself caught up in a separate scandal in which it was alleged that some European lawmakers had accepted money to spread pro-Russian positions on a Moscow-financed news website.
Krah was named in media reports after the Czech government said late last month it had uncovered a Russian propaganda network.
Krah said he had twice appeared on the “Voice of Europe” website but had “of course not received any money for this”.
AfD lawmaker Petr Bystron also denied accepting money to cooperate with the news site.
But the accusations have highlighted worries about potential foreign meddling and disinformation ahead of the June 6-9 EU polls, in which far-right parties across the 27-nation bloc are expected to make gains.
