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FINE

Germany’s far-right AfD handed huge fine over illegal Swiss funding

Germany's far-right party AfD has been fined more than €400,000 for having received illegal campaign funding during regional elections, parliament's administrative body told AFP on Tuesday.

Germany's far-right AfD handed huge fine over illegal Swiss funding
Jörg Meuthen and Guido Reil of the AfD received funds from a Swiss advertising agency. Photo: DPA

One of the party's co-chiefs, Jörg Meuthen, and another leading member, Guido Reil, had received funds from Swiss advertising agency Goal AG in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

But German political parties are banned from receiving campaign funds from non-EU sources.

SEE ALSO: German far-right capitalizes on migrant crimes in EU election campaign

As a result, parliament's administrative body said it had imposed a fine of €402,900 , which essentially amounts to three times that of the illegal donations.

Both Meuthen and Reil are leading candidates for the AfD – Alternative for Germany – in May's European Parliament elections.

The far-right party faces further fines as one of its leaders, Alice Weidel, was also being investigated for having received around €132,000 from a Swiss source.

The six-year-old AfD, the country's biggest opposition party, opposes multiculturalism, Islam and the immigration policies of Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom it labels a “traitor”.

It shook up Germany's political landscape when it won 12.6 percent of the vote in the 2017 general elections, taking dozens of seats in the Bundestag for the first time.

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LITHUANIA

New army scandal: Germany vows to punish soldiers caught singing anti-Semitic songs

Germany's Defence Minister on Tuesday vowed to severely punish soldiers stationed in Lithuania who were accused of singing racist and anti-Semitic songs, if the allegations turned out to be true.

New army scandal: Germany vows to punish soldiers caught singing anti-Semitic songs
German soldiers training in Saxony-Anhalt in May. credit: dpa-Zentralbild | Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

“Whatever happened is in no way acceptable,” said Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Those implicated would be “vigorously prosecuted and punished”, she added.

The Spiegel Online news site had on Monday reported that German soldiers in Lithuania sang racist and anti-Semitic songs during a party at a hotel in April.

One had also sought to sexually assault another soldier while he was asleep, a scene which was caught on film, said Spiegel.

According to Spiegel Online, the scenes took place at a party at which soldiers consumed large quantities of alcohol. They are also alleged to have arranged a “birthday table” for Adolf Hitler on April 20th and to have sung songs for him.

It is unclear to what extent more senior ranked soldiers were aware of the incidents.

Three soldiers have been removed from the contingent stationed in the Baltic country and an investigation is ongoing to identify other suspects, said the report.

The German armed forces have been repeatedly rocked by allegations of right-wing extremism within their ranks.

Kramp-Karrenbauer last year ordered the partial dissolution of the KSK commando force after revelations that some of its members harboured neo-Nazi sympathies.

SEE ALSO: Germany to compensate gay soldiers who faced discrimination

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