German Spy Agency Finds Way To Surveil Right-Wingers Even Harder

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency labeled the country’s popular right-wing party as an “extremist” organization in a statement released Friday, opening the door for the government to ramp up efforts to surveil the right, according to multiple reports.

The Verfassungschutz, or Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), claimed in the statement that Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) is a right-wing extremist party, paving the way for the government to double down on its surveillance of the organization’s activities, according to The New York Times. AfD came in second place in the February federal elections as its platform proved popular among voters tired of runaway immigration and ceding sovereignty to the European Union.

“The ethnicity and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order,” the BfV said in the statement, according to a BBC translation.

BfV’s designation has drawn a sharp response from AfD, which characterized the move as being purely politically driven.