Germany’s Spy Chiefs Urge Court to Agree on Monitoring of Far-Right AfD

the AfD was taken after a year-long inquiry that produced a 1,000-page report. The study was undertaken by BfV agents, lawyers and academic experts on extremism, who examined speeches, broadcasts and social media posts of 302 AfD leaders and officials.

According to Der Spiegel magazine, which obtained a copy, the report concluded that the AfD has a questionable relationship to democracy and is dismissive of human rights. Its stoking of hatred of Muslims and immigrants is poisoning the political climate in the country and risks spawning violence, the report’s authors say. A substantial part of the party, the report says, “seeks to awaken or strengthen a fundamental rejection of the German government and all other parties and their representatives.”

The report’s authors also worry that the “perpetual defamation of and contempt for the democratic order and the party’s political opponents” risks triggering the kind of political violence seen in January in Washington, when Trump supporters from shadowy fringe groups, including the QAnon conspiracy movement, stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to disrupt congressional confirmation of Joe Biden’s election as president.

And the authors highlighted how Germany’s Bundestag was targeted in August when several hundred protesters clambered over fencing ringing the national parliament, and ran toward the entrance, some waving the “Reichsflagge” — the black, white and red flag of the German Empire, colors later adopted by the Nazis. Police pushed back the mob.

While the AfD has seen a precipitous slump in its poll ratings since the coronavirus pandemic struck — the party was polling at just 9% of support last month — officials say violent right-wing extremists, united in their opposition to what they say are illegitimate curbs on freedom, are gaining a boost from the coronavirus and strengthening their mobilization around anti-government conspiratorial narratives.

“We are doubling down on our scrutinizing of groups and individuals on watch lists and adding to the lists — especially in the wake of the storming of the U.S. Congress,” a German intelligence official told VOA last month. The BfV has been monitoring regional branches of AfD for some months.

According to researchers, Germany accounts for a large proportion of European adherents of the QAnon conspiracy movement, which believes former U.S. President Donald Trump has been waging a secret war against elite Satanists and pedophiles in government, business and the media. Q flags, which were on display January 6 in Washington, have also been spotted being unfurled at protests in Germany.

German intelligence officials have also voiced alarm at multiplying connections between the AfD and other groups they deemed extremist, including the anti-refugee “Ein Prozent” (One Percent).

Jamie Dettmer is VOA reporter. This articleis published courtesy of the Voice of America(VOA).