The gray corridors of Parliament were hectic on Tuesday morning. Security staff tried to keep journalists in the hallway with blue barriers. The Federal Prosecutor General had ordered the Brussels offices of the AfD's top candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, to be searched. The reason was apparently the alleged spying for China by one of his ex-employees. The prosecution announced this on Tuesday. Zeit Online and the Tagesschau reported first.

Krah actually enjoys immunity as an EU representative. However, the investigators had previously obtained parliamentary approval. According to the Federal Prosecutor General, the AfD politician himself is not considered a defendant, but rather a witness in the espionage investigation against his former employee Jian G., who is now in custody. The investigators apparently only wanted to find additional evidence with the raid. What exactly remains unclear. Krah's personal documents are protected by his MP status. Authorities also searched G.'s previous rooms, which are right next to Krah's.

Krah himself was not surprised on Tuesday. The AfD's leading candidate told the news portal T-Online: "It was absolutely to be expected that Mr. G.'s office would be searched. (...) I'm just amazed that the authorities took so long."

Investigators accuse Chinese-born Jian G. of spying for Beijing. He passed on information from the European Parliament and spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany.

G. came to Germany in 2002 and studied, among other things, at the Technical University in Dresden. Krah denied knowing anything about the alleged misconduct of his employee, who had worked for him since 2019 - but the incident has since overshadowed the 47-year-old's European election campaign. Krah initially stayed away from the start of the election campaign in Hesse last week - probably at the request of the party leadership.

Editor's note: This article has been updated several times.