Administrative court in Cologne establish That, at least for the time being, Germany’s intelligence services cannot put the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party under surveillance. The decision came after several German newspapers on March 3 They have written The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), that is, the German internal intelligence service, has classified Alternative for Germany, Germany’s main opposition party, as a “suspected case” of political extremism. This would allow services to intercept phone calls and emails exchanged between their members and to recruit informants.
The news has not been confirmed by official sources, given that the trial is underway: the AfD was in fact already under scrutiny in some German states and tried to block the national classification by appealing to the Cologne Court against the BfV. According to the Alternative for Germany party, the German intelligence charges are politically motivated with the aim of harming the party in the September political elections.
On March 3, after German newspapers had published the news, the AfD filed another appeal again to the Cologne court requesting that the BfV’s decision be suspended. The court upheld the AfD’s appeal on the grounds that the secret services were not doing enough to prevent the news from being leaked, violating the confidentiality agreement, and jeopardizing the parties ’guarantee of equal opportunity. He then revoked the BfV’s right to take further action against AfD until the court decides on the first appeal in favor of AfD.
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