German court blocks intelligence agency’s plan to spy on far-right party

March 8, 2021 by 1 Comment

BfV GermanyA GERMAN COURT HAS temporarily blocked an attempt by the country’s intelligence service to place a domestic far-right party under government surveillance for the first time since the Nazi era. The far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, was established in 2013. It shocked the German political establishment in 2017, when it received nearly 6 million votes, which amounted to 12.6% of the national vote. Since then, however, the AfD has been shunned by other political parties and the German media, for its alleged links with neo-Nazi groups and sympathizers.

Last week, German newsmagazine Der Spiegel revealed that the country’s domestic intelligence agency, known as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), had launched an operation to place the entirety of the AfD under surveillance. The purpose of the operation was to assess whether the party is part of a concerted campaign to undermine the German system of government and the constitution. According to Der Spiegel, the BfV decided to launch a surveillance campaign against the AfD following the conclusion of a two-year investigation into the legality of the party’s political platform and activities.

The BfV plan would enable the spy agency to monitor the AfD’s telecommunications, keep tabs on its officials, members and supporters, and investigate the party’s finances for foreign or illicit sources of income. The BfV’s proposed plan marked the first time that a German political party would become the target of systematic surveillance by the state since the Nazi era.

But a court in Cologne has now placed a temporary halt on the BfV’s plans, following a number of legal cases and emergency motions filed by the AfD against the plan, according to reports in the German media. The party reportedly argued that being placed under surveillance by the state would prevent it from competing fairly in elections against other political parties that were not targeted by state surveillance. On Friday, the court concluded that the BfV could not initiate its surveillance of the AfD until the party’s legal challenges against the measure had concluded. This means that the BfV plan is currently suspended until the courts decide on the case. It is not known at this time if the BfV intends to appeal the court’s decision.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 08 March 2021 | Permalink

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German far-right party wins lawsuit against domestic intelligence agency

February 27, 2019 by Leave a comment

BfV GermanyGermany’s largest far-right party, Alternative for Germany, has won a lawsuit against the country’s domestic intelligence agency, which is now barred from collecting intelligence on the group’s activities. Known by its German initials AfD, which stand for Alternative für Deutschland, the party was founded in 2013 on an anti-immigration, Eurosceptic, German-nationalist, and in some cases pro-Russian, platform. In 2017 it became the third-largest political party in the country after winning 94 seats in the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament. Since the two leading parties formed a governing alliance, the AfD is currently Germany’s official parliamentary opposition.

Last year, however, government officials warned that elements within the AfD were actively organizing to subvert the German constitution and expressed concern about the AfD’s political views. In January of this year, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s primary domestic security agency, publicly announced that it would designate the AfD as a “test case” organization. According to German law, a group or organization can be designated as a “test case” when it displays “extremist elements” in its behavior, which may indicate that it “poses a threat to the constitutional order”. Once a group or organization is designated as a “test case”, the BfV is legally permitted to monitor open-source information about it. It is not allowed to resort to other methods of intelligence collection, including conducting human intelligence operations, employing informants, etc.

Shortly after the BfV disclosed the AfD’s “test case” designation, the far-right party sued the security agency, claiming that its “test case” designation amounted to public defamation. On Tuesday, Cologne’s Administrative Court ruled that the BfV had unfairly designated the AfD as a “test case” by relying on little more than “fragments of suspicion”. The court also found that the public designation of the AfD as a “test case” had unfairly defamed the party and could have a serious negative effect on its electoral performance by giving “a negative public impression”. The court decision is seen as a major symbolic victory for the far-right party ahead of several regional elections this year, in which the AfD hopes to defeat Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 27 February 2019 | Permalink

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Intelligence chief warns of foreign interference in German coalition talks

September 29, 2017 by Leave a comment

A senior German intelligence official has warned that foreign powers, including Russia, could try to shape the outcome of talks by German parties to form a governing coalition, following last week’s national elections. The elections resulted in a major shakeup of Germany’s political landscape, as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union lost nearly 10 percentage points compared to its 2013 election result. It is now forced to seek the participation of other conservative or centrist political parties in a broad governing alliance. Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 12.6 percent, propelling it to third place and giving it 91 seats in the Bundestag. The AfD result marks the first time since 1945 that a German far-right party has managed to secure parliamentary representation.

On Thursday, senior intelligence official Burkhard Even said that, unlike France and the United States, Germany was spared major foreign interference during its recent election period. Speaking at a security conference in Berlin, Even, who is director of counterintelligence at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said interference attempts were limited in both volume and impact. He described them as “low-level propaganda” operations conducted mainly by Russian media, which “did not have a significant impact on voters” and did not affect “the election outcome as a whole”. However, the official added that such attempts were possible in the post-election period. For instance, there could be efforts by foreign intelligence agencies to discredit certain government officials or political figures, said Even. Alternatively, methods of propaganda could be employed by a foreign power “to affect the forging of a new government”, he added, referring to the ongoing talks between German political parties to enter into a governing coalition. “The risks are enormous”, said Even, and “they are not diminishing”.

The far-right AfD campaigned in favor of ending Muslim immigration to Germany and expelling most non-Western immigrants from the country. The party has also called for a tighter relationship between Berlin and Moscow and opposes Germany’s decision to impose economic sanctions on Russia in response to its alleged intervention in Crimea. Some have suggested that the Russian intelligence services launched a secret campaign to gather voter support for the AfD in the run-up to last week’s elections.

 

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 29 September 2017 | Permalink

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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