The Rheinische Post newspaper estimated that the AfD could be entitled to €12 million annually in the coming years, while Spiegel calculated that the party could receive €10 million next year thanks to its recent electoral success — nearly double the €6 million allocated for this year.
But public funding for a party is not allowed to exceed the contributions and donations it gets from members and supporters. So the AfD’s funding could end up being less. This was the case for 2016, according to Spiegel, when the AfD could have been awarded €8.7 million in public cash on the basis of its election results, but collected just €7.1 million in donations and contributions — so the public funding was cut to the same amount. [...]
The level of funding for parliamentary groups in the new Bundestag has also not yet been determined. But based on the figures from last term, the AfD’s parliamentary group could be entitled to about €1.2 million per month or €14.5 million per year, according to a member of the Bundestag’s Council of Elders — a body that helps to coordinate parliamentary business — who spoke on condition of anonymity. [...]
Bernhard Weßels, a professor at the Berlin Social Science Center research institute, expects the AfD to spend its new money mainly in three areas: campaigning (mostly through social media), employing party footsoldiers as assistants and researchers, and establishing a foundation that will be both a major right-wing think tank and a recruiting tool for the party.
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