Germany's domestic security agency has placed the far-right Alternative for Germany party under surveillance for posing a threat to democracy, media reported and parliamentary sources said Wednesday, dealing a blow to the anti-immigration party in a big election year.
It follows a two-year investigation and a report containing some 1,000 pages of evidence, including several hundred speeches and statements by AfD members at all party levels, Der Spiegel said. The party would not be"pandering" to the agency, he told reporters, drawing comparisons to state security in the former East Germany.
The AfD took nearly 13 percent of the vote in the 2017 general election, allowing it to make its debut in the German Bundestag where it is also the biggest opposition party. The faction, led by firebrand Bjoern Hoecke, dissolved itself last March but many of its 7,000 members remain active in the AfD.
Members of the AfD arrive for a press statement in Berlin, Germany, after the announcement that their political party will be under surveillance.The head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, welcomed the classification as a"right and necessary step".
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