Overview
- Nine of eleven members of the AfD Saxony-Anhalt board voted to launch an expedited exclusion process against Bundestag member Jan-Wenzel Schmidt, sending the case to a party tribunal that could take months.
- Schmidt says he will begin sending weekly emails from the second week of January with names, documents and figures to support allegations of nepotism and improper travel or expense claims by senior figures.
- BILD reports visible police patrols near Schmidt’s home outside Magdeburg, with authorities viewing him as at risk and the property now secured with cameras.
- t-online details prior controversies surrounding Schmidt, including employing Mario Müller and Christian Lüth in his Bundestag office and a 2023 China trip with Jian Guo, who was later convicted as a Chinese spy.
- The clash unfolds as the AfD leads state polls at roughly 39–40 percent, and CDU lead candidate Sven Schulze warns that an AfD-led government would damage Saxony-Anhalt and Germany.