Germany to step up scrutiny of far-right, anti-immigrant party

The domestic intelligence agency of Germany announced Tuesday that it will begin scrutinizing elements of the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AfD). 

The Constitutional Protection Office said it would conduct a preliminary evaluation of the party’s operations, according to BuzzFeed News, reviewing public statements and other public information, but without resorting to confidential informants or surveillance. 

The news outlet noted that this scrutiny will look into whether the party has begun adopting extremism, which was banned in the nation’s post-World War II constitution. 

{mosads}The examination will scrutinize the federal party as a “test case,” which BuzzFeed notes is the lowest level in the investigative system the office conducts. 

But the news outlet also notes that the Constitutional Protection Office is classifying a pair of organizations affiliated with the party as “suspected cases,” which means it can use limited intelligence sources in its probe. 

Those probes will focus on the AfD’s youth group, Young Alternative, and a faction called the Wing, which has some of the party’s most fervent nationalist politicians. 

Joachim Seeger, head of the Constitutional Protection Office’s right-wing extremism department, implied that its monitoring efforts would scrutinize every politician who signed a 2015 declaration pushing for the party to head in a nationalist direction, BuzzFeed noted. 

The agency will put its focus on Bjorn Höcke, a controversial state leader, among others. 

Thomas Haldenwang, the agency’s head, told The Guardian that Höcke and his wing of the party were a “threat to the liberal democratic principles of Germany’s constitution.”

Alexander Gauland, AfD’s national co-leader, said in a press conference that “the decision of the [Constitutional Protection Office] is wrong,” according to BuzzFeed News. “We will take legal action against it. We consider the arguments to be unsustainable throughout. We believe that political pressure has led to this.”

The AfD won seats in the national legislature for the first time in 2017. It was the first far-right party to win a federal election since the Nazi Party, according to BuzzFeed News.