Petr Bysrton is under investigation for money-laundering activities, according to the Munich public prosecutor’s office. 

Bystron is facing allegations that he received up to €20,000 from individuals linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin to spread Kremlin propaganda. 

He is the second candidate on the AfD’s election list for theEuropean elections.  

The prosecutor’s office said searches are being carried out in Berlin, Bavaria and on the Spanish island of Mayorque in pursuit of evidence.

The German parliament voted to lift Bystron’s parliamentary immunity, enabling the police to conduct their searches.

11 public prosecutors and nearly 60 Bavarian police officers have been mobilised, the Munich public prosecutor’s office said.

In response, the chairmen of the AfD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, issued a statement saying: “The AfD parliamentary group therefore hopes that the investigation will be completed quickly so that there is no suspicion that authorities and public prosecutors are trying to influence the European election campaign.”

The accusations mark a fresh blow against the AfD party, which is currently under scrutiny over allegations that it has links to China and Russia. 

Fellow AfD member Maximilian Krah’s assistant is under investigation for allegedly spying for China.

Krah himself is under initial investigation by prosecutors in Dresden over allegations of accepting payments from Russia and China during his time as an MEP.

Slovakia’s prime minister is expected to survive after he was shot multiple times and gravely wounded during an attempted assassination on Wednesday, according to his deputy.

Doctors fought for several hours to save Prime Minister Robert Fico’s life after he was shot in the abdomen while he was greeting supporters at an event outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, Defense Minister Robert Kalina told reporters.

“I guess in the end he will survive,” Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC, adding: “He’s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.”

A suspect was swiftly arrested following the attack Wednesday and an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation,” Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said.

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The 59-year-old’s attempted assassination just weeks before an election shocked the small country and reverberated concern across Europe.

“A physical attack on the prime minister is, first of all, an attack on a person, but it is also an attack on democracy,” said outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, Fico’s political rival. “Any violence is unacceptable. The hateful rhetoric we’ve been witnessing in society leads to hateful actions. Please, let’s stop it.”

Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was wounded in a shooting at an event Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile.  (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

President-elect Peter Pellegrini, an ally of Fico, called the shooting “an unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy. If we express other political opinions with pistols in squares, and not in polling stations, we are jeopardizing everything that we have built together over 31 years of Slovak sovereignty.”

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also denounced the violence.

“Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere,” he said.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala chimed in with other world leaders and wished the prime minister a swift recovery, saying “we cannot tolerate violence, there’s no place for it in society.”

The Czech Republic and Slovakia formed Czechoslovakia until 1992.

The man accused of shooting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico during an event in the town of Handlova, Slovakia, on Wednesday, was arrested by police quickly after the incident. (Radovan Stoklasa/TASR via AP)

Fico, a divisive figure in Slovakia, returned to power last year after campaigning on a pro-Russian, anti-American platform. 

At the time, European Union members expressed worry that he could potentially lead Slovakia – a nation of 5.4 million that belongs to NATO – to abandon its pro-Western course.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.