AfD rejected Upper Austrian police officer’s membership bid

ORF reported, citing the newspaper Der Standard, that a former head of Upper Austria’s border police applied to join Germany’s AfD party. The party rejected his application because its rules bar foreign nationals whose main residence is outside Germany.

Der Standard reported that the AfD’s federal executive considered the application in April 2019, after it was submitted in October 2018. At the time, the officer was reportedly working in strategy and operational duties at the Upper Austria Police Directorate.

The application was submitted through the office of then-AfD lawmaker Frank Pasemann, who was later expelled from the party over far-right activities. The officer listed his membership of Austria’s FPÖ, provided his work email address and said he was willing to pay the annual membership fee. The AfD’s federal treasurer at the time informed him that he was ineligible because he lived abroad.

Speaking to Der Standard, the officer said he had applied after a tour of the German parliament arranged by his daughter’s friend, who was reportedly Pasemann’s office manager. He said the application stemmed more from that connection than from political interest in the AfD.

The information became public in 2026 after a hacker attack on the AfD in which more than 421,000 emails were stolen. The leaked material also concerned senior party figures, including Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel.