"We must be crazy!!!!": The AfD leak shows which way Alice Weidel has gone

The leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, Alice Weidel, issued a stark warning on Tuesday regarding the potential spread of civil unrest from France to German soil. Writing on the social media platform X, Weidel described recent violent outbreaks in France as a direct signal for Germany. She argued that a dangerous combination of mass migration and left-wing extremism threatens to create conditions resembling a civil war within the country. Her comments followed a weekend marked by severe demonstrations in France, which were overshadowed by widespread riots. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez attributed the arson attacks and targeted assaults on public buildings in Paris to rioters from the left-extremist spectrum. Weidel’s remarks came in response to warnings from psychologist Ahmad Mansour. Speaking to the Bild newspaper, Mansour cautioned that radical left groups might attempt to replicate the chaos seen in France within Germany. He noted that while current disputes in German schools remain peaceful, the situation could rapidly deteriorate. Mansour stated that anyone still referring to these incidents merely as school protests lacks contact with reality given the events of the previous days in France. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt echoed this sentiment, rejecting any minimization of the violence. He told Bild that individuals who turn streets into battlefields, attack police officers, and set town halls on fire are not demonstrating for better education. Instead, he characterized their actions as an armed fight against free society and the established lifestyle. Dobrindt urged politicians to name the perpetrators explicitly, stating that failing to identify the convergence of left extremists and a migrant milieu fighting against the democratic system indicates a lack of understanding of the situation. Reactions from the political left diverged sharply from the government's assessment. The Left Party expressed solidarity with the rioters through a joint Instagram post authored by the party and its co-chair, Bundestag member Ines Schwerdtner. They declared their support for the protesters, describing their struggle for a better future as one that unites people across borders. The party framed the movement as having evolved from initial school protests into a mass campaign advocating for social rights, affordable living standards, and opposition to both war and the advance of the extreme right. The local branch of the Left Party in Neukölln, represented by Bundestag member Ferat Koçak, called on the federal government to sharply condemn police violence against French youth. The group further demanded billions of euros for education instead of military spending and voiced support for local school strikes opposing conscription. They also organized a demonstration in the Neukölln district. Holger Onken, the state chair of the new political party BSW in Lower Saxony, also aligned himself with the protesters. Posting on X, Onken complained that racists were attempting to ethnicize the protests in France. He compared the scenes to the revolution of 1789, noting that ethnicity played no role in that historical event and should play none today either. These political exchanges occurred against the backdrop of a major data security incident involving the AfD itself. A hacker group identified as Hexane published approximately 420,000 emails and over 280 gigabytes of documents belonging to the party. The leaked materials span from March 2013 to September 14, 2026, covering nearly the entire history of the party since its founding in February 2013. The dataset includes correspondence from central mailboxes at the federal headquarters in Berlin, the federal arbitration court, and personal accounts of senior officials such as Weidel, former chairman Alexander Gauland, and long-time office director Hans-Holger Malcomess. The files contain strategy papers for election campaigns, documents related to party expulsion proceedings, and lists of party members. Additionally, the leak reportedly includes identification documents, bank statements, invoices, and address lists of suspected anti-fascist activists. The AfD confirmed the breach on Tuesday, labeling it an illegal act and a criminal offense. The party leadership described the incident as an attack on the German party system and democracy. While acknowledging that large volumes of data had been exfiltrated, the party maintained that only parts of a few mailboxes were copied, many of which had not been used for years. Current mailboxes for the federal association were reportedly unaffected. The authenticity of the leaked data has been assessed by IT experts, who consider the files genuine. This view is supported by the presence of specific journalistic inquiries and internal communications that align with previously known public statements. For instance, the dataset contains an email dated January 23, 2017, sent from Weidel’s account to the party leadership. It discussed a reaction to a speech by Thuringian state leader Björn Höcke, who had criticized German remembrance policy. At the time, Weidel publicly condemned Höcke’s rhetoric as backward-looking and voted for a party expulsion procedure against him. Internal messages revealed in the leak suggest she was actively involved in formulating the party’s response internally. The hacker group released the data via an anonymous website, offering two levels of access. One level provides AI-summarized topics, while the other allows download of the original raw data. The AfD stated that affected users have been informed and that the party would not answer press questions regarding the specific content of the leaks. The timing of the leak coincides with the party’s growing electoral success, including the possibility of placing its candidate Ulrich Siegmund as minister-president in Saxony-Anhalt for the first time.