The party of Alternative for Germany AFD is being under watch by German intelligence, a report issued by the DW says.
“After confirming suspicions that the formation of the group has extreme right-wing aspirations, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – Internal Intelligence – decided to put under watch the Wing group, founded by right-wing nationalists from the Alternative for Germany party,” the Arabic speaking news outlet points out.
The German news agency DPA said that Federal Office confirmed its suspicions about the group, that its foundation involves extreme-right aspirations.
The office has previously announced its willingness to give information on its efforts in combatting the extreme right, where it called for a press conference in the presence of Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the Federal Office.
In the past few months, Haldenewang confirmed that extreme right has a new dynamic now and there is an overlap between different streams.
On Wednesday, the Alternative for Germany published some of its leaders’ responses, saying: with these responses some leaders want to clarify their previous statements about Islam, immigration and deporting asylum seekers whose application were rejected. This step comes to nullify the precautions of the Federal Office.
It’s noteworthy that not all the statements are made by pro-Wing group.
In January 2019, the Federal Office in the eastern German state of Thuringia announced classifying the Wing group -founded by Bjorn Hocke, president of the ‘Alternative’ parliamentary bloc in the state- as a suspected extreme right group, and so is the classification of the Alternative Youth Organization.
The head of the German Federal Intelligence Agency, Thomas Haldenwang, had described the right extremism as the greatest threat to democracy in Germany, prompting his agency to put a part of the Alternative for Germany’s far-right party under watch, according to the British Guardian newspaper.
Haldenwang said that the number of most extreme followers of the right-wing in the country is estimated at 32000, adding that 13000 of them are considered violent.
“The extremist terrorism of the right is now considered as the greatest threat to democracy in Germany,” he said in a press conference.
The intelligence agency has officially put under watch the Wing party, considered as the most extremist group in the Alternative party.
Although there are no official lists for membership, the number of the Wing group followers is estimated at 7,000; about a fifth of the party’s members.
However, the group’s influence goes beyond the party, as its extreme nationalist demands contribute to shaping the agenda of the party Alternative for Germany.
Reclassification of the group will help the German intelligence agency giving permission to use listening devices and appointing police informants to track the group’s members.
The Alternative for Germany was established in 2013 to oppose the EU rescuing operations for Greek. During the past 7 years, the part has expanded and became a far-right party, emerging several leaders.
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