BERLIN – German domestic intelligence agency has put Germany’s right-wing alternative under scrutiny as a potential threat to the country’s democracy, officials said Wednesday, creating the scene for a fight between the state and a party that is the biggest opposition in parliament. .
It is the first time in the post – war history of Germany that a party represented in the federal parliament has provoked such intense scrutiny, and it highlights an uncomfortable question facing the country’s institutions: What to do do with a party that is considered a danger to democracy – but which is popularly entrenched in parts of the country and at all levels of politics?
The question resonates in an election year in which Angela Merkel will retire as chancellor after 16 years, a term in which she became a symbol of Germany learning from its history and welcoming refugees.
The leaders of the Alternative for Germany, AfD, as the party is known, regularly accuse Muslim immigrants of being criminals, attack the press and question the universalist principles of liberal democracy.
During the coronavirus pandemic, AfD officials took part in protests that sometimes turned violent and in one case, protesters entered the parliament building. Although it became more radical, the party established a presence in parliament and legislators across the country.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as the Domestic Intelligence Agency is known here, is increasingly concerned about the party’s spending, and has studied the speeches and posts on social media of AfD officials.
A year ago, the intelligence agency classified the most radical wing of the party and its youth organization as extremist, saying it would put some of its most influential leaders under surveillance.
Since then, it is suspected that this radical wing has expanded its influence in the party, say officials, who have asked the agency to investigate the entire party for extremism. The latest decision does not stop the AfD from being classified as extremist, but it does clear the way for the agency to place it under surveillance to determine if it is.
Members of the AfD on Wednesday reacted with indignation and promised to take legal measures and indicate that the move was politically motivated.
“The intelligence agency is acting purely politically when it comes to the AfD,” wrote Alice Weidel, a prominent party leader, on Twitter. “Given the state and federal elections this year, it’s particularly remarkable.”
Another AfD legislator, Jürgen Braun, sounded a similar theme. “You know you live in Germany,” he wrote on Twitter“When the domestic secret service declared the largest opposition party a suspect a week and a half before two major regional elections and a few months before the national election,” he said.
The decision was reached last Thursday, but not publicly announced, pending an ongoing court case brought by the AfD to stop the measures against it.
Last month, an administrative court in Cologne ruled that the intelligence office, known here as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or its German initials BfV, had been allowed to start investigating the AfD for extremism.
The agency declined to comment on Wednesday. But German officials, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of an ongoing court case, upheld the decision.
“Due to the ongoing lawsuits and out of respect for the court, the BfV is not making any public statements on this,” the intelligence agency said in an email.
The founding mission of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution after World War II was to protect against the rise of political forces – mainly another Nazi party – that could again threaten Germany’s democracy.
“We take the mission very seriously,” the agency’s president, Thomas Haldenwang, told a news conference last year after calling part of the AfD extremist.
“We know from German history that extremism of the far right not only destroyed human lives, but that it destroyed democracy,” he said. “Extremism from the far right and extremist right office is currently the greatest danger to democracy in Germany.”