The SPD lost support from the 2019 election, winning just 13.9% of the latest votes. Incremental gains meanwhile turned Germany's opposition, the CDU (Christian democrats), into the strongest party, with 23.7% of support. At a national level, the AfD was last ahead of the SPD and in second place overall, according to a leading general election poll. Earlier this year, one of Krah's employees who was based in the European Parliament was arrested for allegedly spying on the parliament for China. watch nowThe AfD's second-in-line for the European Parliament, Petr Bystron, faced allegations of bribery and money laundering, which were linked to Russia and to spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda.

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Persons: Olaf Scholz, Koenig Heinrich, Ying Tang, Maximilian Krah, Krah, Petr Bystron, What's, Scholz, Marcel Fratzscher, Scholz's, Emmanuel Macron, Fratzscher, Holger Schmieding Organizations: SPD, Union, Scholz's SPD, Greens, CDU, Nazi regime's SS, Parliament, ZDF, German Institute for Economic Research, CNBC, Deutsche Bank Locations: Duisburg, Germany, France's Rassemblement, China, Russia