Jan Wenzel Schmidt

Schmidt joined the AfD in 2014. One year later he co-founded their rightwing extremist youth organization Junge Alternative (Young Alternative for Germany) and became their first chairman. In 2016 Schmidt was elected to the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt.^[2] He became member of the Bundestag in 2021.^[3] He was re-elected in the 2025 German federal election, winning his constituency with 43.2% of the vote.^[4]

Shortly before Christmas 2025, the state executive committee of the AfD Saxony-Anhalt requested that Schmidt be expelled from the AfD and to revoke his membership rights. The latter has now been confirmed by the state arbitration court of the AfD. While the AfD's expulsion proceedings against him are ongoing, Schmidt remains a member of the AfD but has no membership rights.
There have been many allegations against Schmidt, who was secretary general of the AfD Saxony-Anhalt from 2022 to 2025. I.e., the state executive committee has accused him of employing staff from his own private e-cigarette company as mini-jobbers in his Bundestag office, at the taxpayers' expense.
In January 2026, an AfD party tribunal confirmed that Wenzel would lose his membership rights. It accused him of fictitious employment and lobbying.^[5]