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Rocked by spy scandal, Germany's far-right reprises old themes at campaign launch

Buffeted by sliding poll ratings and reeling from allegations that it had harboured a Chinese spy in its ranks, Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany sought to recover lost momentum at the Saturday launch of its campaign for June's European Parliament elections. Support for the AfD, which at the start of the year was vying with the conservatives to top opinion polls in Germany, was ebbing even before the arrest this week of an assistant to its lead candidate Maximilian Krah on espionage charges. That followed media reports that Czech security had evidence that Petr Bystron, second-placed on the party's list, had taken money from a website with links to the Kremlin.