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An AfD supporter with a souped-up party logo.
(archive image)
Photo:
Ronny Hartmann / dpa
The public prosecutor's office in Dessau-Roßlau is investigating the member of the Bundestag Kay-Uwe Ziegler (AfD) on suspicion of subsidy fraud.
This was confirmed by a spokesman for the authorities when asked by SPIEGEL.
The Bundestag had previously lifted the politician's immunity.
The reason for the investigation was apparently Corona aid, which Ziegler had applied for in spring 2020, during the first lockdown, as managing director of a private textile company in Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt.
According to the Bundestag website, Ziegler has been working there since 2012 and is responsible for two branches with seven employees.
In a statement by Ziegler to SPIEGEL, the politician confirmed that, as the managing director of a textile retail company, he had applied for and received emergency corona aid of 12,096 euros in March 2020.
In January 2021, he complained on Facebook that the help for companies during the pandemic was insufficient.
The subject of the public prosecutor's investigation is now apparently the question of whether the company was already in debt at the time the application for emergency aid was applied for and was therefore possibly not entitled to a subsidy.
In his statement, Ziegler admits that the emergency aid was repaid in August 2021 - "including interest and costs".
However, he rejects the allegation of criminally relevant actions as “absurd”.
The public prosecutor's office initially did not want to comment on the details of the procedure, citing the ongoing investigation.
Ziegler has come into contact with the investigative authorities in the past.
In Saxony-Anhalt, criminal charges were filed against the AfD man because he had used a slogan of the "Sturmabteilung", the paramilitary combat organization of the NSDAP during the Weimar Republic.
At the time, Ziegler stated that he had no knowledge of the historical background.
srö/til
