Police have ruled out any foul play in relation to the recent deaths of seven AfD candidates, but prominent public figures are sowing unfounded theories online.
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As many as seven candidates running for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have died during the course of a local election campaign, prompting the spread of unfounded suspicions on social media.
Voters will elect district, municipal and city councils as well as some mayors in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia on 14 September, with an estimated 20,000 candidates running for office.
According to media reports, four candidates and two back-up candidates for AfD have died during the campaign, with the causes of death ranging from natural causes to suicide.
A further candidate's death was reported in recent days, raising the death toll to seven.
Four of these deaths reportedly occurred in the space of just 13 days.
German police authorities say there is no evidence of foul play in relation to any of the deaths, while an AfD spokesperson from the state has also reportedly dismissed suspicions regarding the death toll.
A North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of the Interior spokesperson told German news agency dpa that candidates from other parties had also died during the electoral campaign.
Yet the AfD candidate death toll has sparked widespread conspiracies and unfounded theories that suggest the deaths were in some way intentional.
Alice Weidel, the 46-year-old leader of AfD — which was the second biggest party in February's federal elections — shared a post on X which described the deaths as "statistically almost impossible".
Known disinformation actors have since amplified the insinuation. These include British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who asked on X "Wtf is going on here?"
Elon Musk replied to Robinson's post with a one-word remark: "Weird".
Such insinuations from high-profile, controversial public figures have fuelled the spread of the conspiracy.
Musk previously endorsed AfD in the run-up to February's federal ballot, which saw AfD come in second with 20.8% of the vote, a record-breaking result for the party in a national election.
The party previously won its first German district council election in June 2023 and its first regional election in the state of Thuringia in September 2024.
Ahead of the North Rhine-Westphalia elections, EuroVerify has identified hundreds of posts suggesting that the seven candidates' deaths are in some way suspicious on Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook, garnering tens of millions of views.
Conservative and far-right media outlets have also published news articles describing the deaths as "mysterious" or "unexpected", despite no evidence to support these theories and despite police authorities dismissing any criminality.