The right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said this Tuesday (11) that it was the victim of “institutional persecution”, after two banks in the North Rhine-Westphalia region closed the accounts of their regional branches. The party classified the decision as a “politically motivated” measure, according to a report by Euronews.
The banks Verbund Volksbank OWL and Volksbank in Ostwestfalen confirmed the closure of the accounts, but claimed banking secrecy in order not to disclose the reasons. The AfD branch in the Minden-Lübbecke district stated that there was no irregularity and that the closure was solely due to the ideological stance of the financial institutions.
“As there is no misconduct on the part of the AfD and the trustworthiness of the association remains unchanged, there is only one explanation left: this is a politically motivated account closure,” said Sebastian Landwehr, regional chairman of the party.
The leadership of the AfD, currently the main opposition force in the German Parliament and the country’s second largest political force, criticized what it called an attempt to “silence the opposition through financial means”. In a statement, the party asked its supporters to close their personal accounts at the banks involved, as a form of protest.
The case is not new. In January, according to the agency Reutersa party branch in Düsseldorf also had its account closed by Volksbank Düsseldorf-Neuss, while in 2024, the Berliner Volksbank closed the AfD’s national donation account following a campaign by the group “Grandmothers Against the Right”, which gathered more than 30 thousand signatures.
According to the German press, at this time only public banks in the Sparkassen system, required by law to serve political parties, continue to operate AfD accounts. The acronym states that it will appeal to the courts and that it will continue “acting within democratic legality, despite attempts at political and financial blockade”.
