Leipzig clan with three wives, 32 children and €100,000 a year in benefits sparks political row
A Saxony police dossier that highlights a Leipzig family with three wives and dozens of children has re‑ignited debate over welfare abuse and school hijab bans.
A report from Saxony has put a spotlight on one extended Syrian family in Leipzig whose size and legal troubles are fueling a wider debate in Germany about social-welfare fraud and the role of religion in schools.
According to police files, one clan leader in Leipzig is legally married under Islamic custom to three women and is the father of at least 32 children and 25 grandchildren. The family receives more than €100,000 a year in state money just from child benefits and basic social assistance (Grundsicherung), the files say.
Saxony’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and local media say this household is part of four large Syrian family clans in the region that together number roughly 1,000 people and have been under police scrutiny for years.
Authorities report high levels of criminality within the tighter family network: nearly two-thirds of its members are registered for serious offences. The catalogue of alleged crimes includes drug trafficking, money laundering, people-smuggling, robberies, unlawful possession of weapons and fatal traffic incidents.
Political fallout and a fresh AfD proposal
European parliamentarians commented with concern that state institutions and the judiciary have for years "dragged their feet" in attempts to break up such organised structures. The case has also been seized on by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) to press a wider cultural agenda.
AfD has formally asked for a nationwide ban on Muslim headscarves in public schools for all girls under 14, citing a new regulation that will take effect in neighbouring Austria as a model. AfD MP Kerstin Prigoda said the measure is key to the "defence of traditional European values" and argued the state must not leave young girls exposed to pressure from conservative environments.
The proposal drew immediate criticism from mainstream centre-right and centre-left parties. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens dismissed the AfD initiative as provocative and warned it risks fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment ahead of regional elections. Critics also said there is no solid evidence of widespread coercive head-covering and that, for most girls, wearing a headscarf is a personal, familial or cultural choice.
Photo: Unsplash, Ifrah Akter
