Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party announced on Tuesday that it was investigating the online publication of emails allegedly stolen in a major cyberattack targeting an email service provider used by the party.
More than 421,000 emails were reportedly stolen during the attack last month, including messages sent by AfD co-leader Alice Weidel and co-founder Alexander Gauland, according to German newspaper Bild.
The leak comes as the AfD, which has topped national opinion polls and made gains in recent state elections, faces calls from some politicians and civil society groups to be banned over concerns that it threatens Germany's democratic constitutional order.
The New Arab breaks down what we know about the alleged breach and its implications.
What do we know about the AfD email leak?
According to an official statement from the AfD, hackers targeted a hosting service provider used by the party and apparently copied data from a small number of email accounts, most of which had not been used for years.
"The recent online publication of what is presumably a portion of this data is currently being investigated," a party spokesperson said. "A preliminary assessment can only be provided once this investigation has been concluded."
The far-right party did not disclose how much data had been stolen, while a website published what it described as summaries of some of the emails rather than the original messages.
The website hosting the material was offline by Tuesday afternoon, but archived versions showed a trove of 281 gigabytes of data under the headline "The party's own records, unedited".
Meanwhile, Bild reported that the published material included photographs of identity cards belonging to some party members, alongside bank statements, membership applications and membership lists from several local AfD branches.
The leaked material also allegedly contained discriminatory messages, with online summaries reportedly referencing Adolf Hitler, Nazi slogans, swastikas, racism and antisemitism.
These included an email concerning a so-called "Hitler pilgrimage" and a separate incident involving a Christmas card bearing a swastika.
One summary reportedly described party figures discussing having a photographer forcibly removed from an event, while other messages allegedly contained aggressive rhetoric directed at former German chancellor Angela Merkel.
The archive also reportedly included correspondence about disciplinary proceedings and the possible expulsion of party members.
However, the authenticity, context and extent of these claims have yet to be independently verified.
Cybersecurity experts have noted that the reported breach appeared to involve a third-party hosting provider rather than a direct attack on the party's own systems.
The potential exposure of sensitive information could nevertheless have significant implications for the AfD and Germany's wider political landscape.
The developments come as the anti-immigration party tops national opinion polls, having finished first in two state elections last month, comfortably ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Several AfD state branches have been classified as "confirmed right-wing extremist" by regional offices of Germany's domestic intelligence agency.
The party secured its strongest result in Saxony-Anhalt, where it hopes to form Germany's first far-right state government since the Second World War.
On Monday, several migrant rights groups urged Merz and state premiers to establish legal, administrative and financial safeguards to protect migrants and asylum seekers from potential threats under a possible AfD-led administration in Saxony-Anhalt.
"In the coming weeks, a party whose state branch has been classified as confirmed right-wing extremist by the domestic intelligence agency could join government for the first time," the organisations warned.
"They would then have a say in key areas such as policing, education and security. Yet there is still no plan to protect the people who would be threatened by such a government."