Germany considers blocking AfD from intelligence after election breakthrough

Germany’s federal government is exploring measures to prevent the far-right Alternative for Democracy (AfD) party from accessing sensitive intelligence data should it take control of the Saxony-Anhalt regional government. The move follows the party’s decisive victory in the state’s recent election, marking its strongest performance since the end of World War II and raising alarms among domestic security agencies and international allies about potential leaks to Russia.

The concern centers on the possibility that an AfD-led interior ministry could use routine intelligence-sharing channels to identify undercover agents tasked with monitoring the party. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, has classified the AfD as a suspected extremist organization at the national level and confirmed it as an extremist group in Saxony-Anhalt. Consequently, the party’s local chapter is already under surveillance.

Jacob Ross, a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, warned that if the AfD obtains the interior minister portfolio, “one of the big fears in the intelligence community is that they would then very rapidly try to find out who within their own ranks is spying on them.”

Beyond internal surveillance, officials fear that classified details regarding German, European, and NATO defense strategies could be compromised. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has previously stated he opposes sharing secrets with AfD officials, emphasizing the party’s “undeniable” close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. During a Bundestag debate last November, lawyers for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling coalition accused the AfD of harboring a Russian “sleeper cell” interested in Germany’s critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.

In response to these threats, German authorities are reportedly drafting plans to restrict the party’s access to top-secret documents, including a 1,000-page war plan detailing responses to a hypothetical Russian attack similar to the invasion of Ukraine. France’s domestic intelligence agency also notified its German counterpart last week of its intention to withhold information on far-right extremists and Russian activities if the AfD governs in Saxony-Anhalt.

Experts point to precedents in other European nations where intelligence sharing was limited due to pro-Russian leanings within coalition governments. Dan Lomas, an international relations professor at the University of Nottingham, noted that while limiting intel flows between allies is not uncommon, excluding an elected regional government could create operational gaps, particularly regarding police coordination for infrastructure protection.

The strategy faces legal and democratic challenges. Jork Herrmann, an AfD spokesman, told the New York Times that withholding intelligence based on “unsubstantiated and unprovable allegations” would be undemocratic. Anton Shekhovtsov of the Centre for Democratic Integrity observed that while a court confirmation of the party’s extremist status would provide legal grounds for secrecy, a lack of such a ruling would make it difficult to justify keeping the party in the dark.

Ross argued that these efforts highlight the limitations of the “firewall” strategy used by mainstream parties to keep the far right out of power, suggesting that Germany may need to adopt a more inclusive approach similar to recent moves by French President Emmanuel Macron.