The German intelligence agency opened an investigation into Germany’s far-right alternative as a potential threat to constitutional order, officials said on Wednesday, an unprecedented move at the beginning of a decisive election year for the country.
The decision marks the most recent escalation in the scrutiny of Germany’s largest parliamentary opposition party, whose popularity soared in the wake of the 2015 refugee crisis. in some parts of the country.
Germany faces several important votes this year, with six states going to the polls before the federal elections in September that will end Angela Merkel’s 16-year reign as chancellor.
Representatives of other political parties, including Merkel’s conservative bloc, welcomed the move.
“The extreme right-wing extremists took the reins of AfD …[The party] it doesn’t belong to parliaments, ”said Markus Blume, secretary general of the Bavarian party brother to Merkel’s conservatives.