• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Democracy at Risk

Germany Security Agency Steps Up Watch of Far-Right AfD

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
01/15/19
in Democracy at Risk, Featured, World
German far-right supporters demonstrate at Cologne`s train station on 9 January, 2016

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (Pegida) supporters in Germany. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Germany’s domestic intelligence will step up monitoring for political extremism of the far-right AfD party, sources said Tuesday, a blow to the party in a busy election year.

However, the agency – BfV – has shied away from immediate full surveillance of the entire party, including phone and email taps, the use of undercover informants and the collection of personal data on MPs.

A report on the move by Berlin’s Tagesspiegel daily was confirmed to AFP by sources familiar with the decision ahead of separate Berlin press conferences by BfV chief Thomas Haldenwang and AfD leaders.


Why This Matters

The five-year-old Alternative for Germany, the country’s biggest opposition party, opposes multiculturalism, Islam and the immigration policies of Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom it labels a “traitor.”

The BfV can place under surveillance individuals and groups, including politicians and parties it considers “extremist” and threatening to the state’s liberal democratic order.

It has in the past placed under surveillance some lawmakers of the far-left opposition Die Linke party, which emerged in part from the former East Germany’s communist party.

The BfV has in recent months reviewed inflammatory statements and social media posts of AfD members and was to announce Tuesday that it had officially designated the party as a “review case.”

It was also to start full surveillance of the party’s youth organization JA, which is suspected of having ties with the extremist Identitarian Movement.

And it was to place under surveillance the AfD’s most far-right grouping “The Wing” (Der Fluegel), led by nationalist Bjoern Hoecke, reported the Tagesspiegel.

Hoecke has sparked outrage with statements on Germany’s Nazi past, calling Berlin’s Holocaust monument a “memorial of shame” and urging a “180-degree shift” in the country’s culture of remembrance.

News of the stepped-up BfV watch comes as a blow to the AfD, which in 2017 elections won 13 percent of the national vote and is represented in all 16 state parliaments.

The populist party hopes to make further gains in European parliament elections in May and in three autumn state polls in Germany’s formerly communist east, its electoral heartland.


More on the Subject

In his Twitter bio, Cas Mudde describes himself like this: “Used to study fringe politics. Now study mainstream politics.”

These words accurately illustrate a recent eruption of populist politics all across the world, most of which were buoyed by the victory of President Donald Trump in the U.S. These anti-establishment parties now vie for power in Europe and threaten to disrupt consolidated democracies.

Cas Mudde: No Western Democracy Naturally Immune to Far-Right

 

Share5Tweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany
World

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

by Staff Writer
March 10, 2023
Mario Draghi
Business

EU Leaders Clash Over How to Tackle Energy Prices

by Staff Writer
October 20, 2022
Arne Schoenbohm
World

German Cybersecurity Chief Sacked Over Alleged Russia Ties

by Staff Writer
October 18, 2022
Olaf Scholz
Business

Germany Defends Massive Energy Plan Against EU Critics

by Staff Writer
October 4, 2022
German police
World

Woman Dies After Stabbing on German University Campus

by Staff Writer
June 13, 2022
Volkswagen logo
Environment

German Farmer Sues Volkswagen Over CO2 Emissions

by Staff Writer
May 20, 2022
Next Post
A Syrian refugee holds a baby in a refugee camp set in the town of Harmanli, south-east of Sofia

Winter Weather Killed 15 Displaced Children in Syria: UN

British Prime Minister Theresa May in front of a flag

UK Parliament Deals Historic Defeat to PM May's Brexit Deal

Recommended

A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021

Militia Leader Gets 18 Years in Prison Over US Capitol Attack

May 26, 2023
Customers queue to enter a re-opened Zara clothes shop

EU Targets Fast Fashion in Push for Durable Goods

May 23, 2023
A billboard showing the debt limit is seen in Washington, D.C.

US Republicans Upbeat on Prospects for Debt Deal

May 19, 2023
Military hardware rolls through Dvortsovaya Square during a Victory Day military parade in central Saint Petersburg

Pressing Russia, US Shares Nuclear Warhead Data Under Treaty

May 16, 2023
A man holding a gun

The NRA’s Continuing Agenda of Fear

May 12, 2023
US Panel Recommends Nonprescription Use of Contraception Pill

US Panel Recommends Nonprescription Use of Contraception Pill

May 11, 2023

Opinion

A man holding a gun

The NRA’s Continuing Agenda of Fear

May 12, 2023
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

A Supreme Folly 

April 24, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post