Overview
- The AfD parliamentary group paid plagiarism investigator Stefan Weber to produce a new report that was presented publicly in Erfurt on Wednesday.
- Weber’s paper says it found 125 additional plagiarism passages, bringing the total flagged fragments to 265, and identifies 42 passages where claimed expert interviews closely match published sources.
- AfD leader Björn Höcke used the report to demand Voigt’s resignation and to call the work a ‘serious plagiarism case’ and a ‘fraud case’.
- TU Chemnitz says it will not reopen its January revocation decision on the basis of the external paper and notes its extended faculty council reached a careful, prior finding; Voigt has filed a formal appeal (Widerspruch) and may take the matter to court if the appeal fails.
- The case mixes scholarly questions and partisan tactics: Weber is a high-profile but contested investigator, CDU and other parties call the AfD presentation a political PR move, and the dispute could shape Voigt’s standing and future legal and political steps over months.