Dresden’s lead prosecutor, Lorenz Haase, confirmed on Wednesday that a perjury investigation has been opened against Frauke Petry, the co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.
The 40-year-old is accused of lying to the state electoral committee over financing for the party’s 2014 state election campaign in Saxony.
The state parliament in Saxon capital Dresden, where Petry is an elected representative, has now been informed, said Haase.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been stealing the headlines for much of 2016 in Germany.
Riding on growing public anger over the huge refugee influx which saw over one million people arrive in Germany in 2015, their polling figures have increased steadily since the summer.
After sexual assaults were reported on hundreds of women in Cologne over New Year, allegedly carried out by men of North African or Middle Eastern backgrounds, public faith in the pro-refugee stance of the mainstream parties was badly damaged - and the AfD were there to pick up the pieces.
At state elections in March, they were the only party (aside from a fringe neo-Nazi one) to go against an open-door refugee policy, and stunned the political establishment, scoring over 20 percent in one state at their first time of trying.