BERLIN, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has announced on Tuesday that it is exploring options to prevent the political group from being monitored by German intelligence agencies for its alleged links to right-wing extremists.
AfD parliamentary faction leader Alice Weidel told press in Berlin that the party was considering "legal and organizational" counter strategies, as well as measures on a "public communicative" level towards that end. Weidel also accused other parties of using all means available to undermine the AfD.
Weidel noted that aside from preparing a lawsuit against the AfD's prospective monitoring by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the party was also considering appointing an internal "special investigator" to give its leadership a clearer picture of the situation at regional branches. Weidel said that she would formally propose the creation of a commission in charges of this internal investigation at a special AfD party leadership conference on Wednesday night.
In spite of the unusual intervention, AfD deputy leader Alexander Gauland insisted that his party remained committed to Germany's constitutional order. "I do not perceive any lurch of the AfD to the right at all", Gauland told press.
Thomas Opperman (SPD), deputy president of the federal parliament (Bundestag) has publicly urged intelligence services to begin monitoring the AfD in light of widely-publicized far-right marches in Chemnitz. AfD politicians helped to organize several demonstrations inspired by the alleged murder of a German by two foreigners in the East German city. Following clashes with police, anti-Nazi protestors, and civilians, the party leadership defended what it described as understandable outbursts of anger.
Opperman argued that partially violent demonstrations had hereby showcased how the AfD cooperated with Neonazis and other far-right activists who were plotting to overthrow Germany's constitutional order. The two groups appeared to have agreed on a "division of labor" which needed to be scrutinized by the BfV.
Opperman's intervention has so far been met with mixed reactions. However, the regional offices of the BfV in the states of Lower Saxony and Bremen have already launched independent investigations into the youth organization of the AfD in the meanwhile.
"The AfD youth organization represents a worldview in which minorities like immigrants, asylum seekers, Muslims, political adversaries and homosexuals are sweepingly denigrated and defamed", Lower Saxony interior minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) commented on the move in his respective state.
"One can no longer avert ones' eyes and downplay (the behavior in question). The time has come to act", Pistorius added. Earlier, Lars Steinicke, the leader of the AfD youth organization in Lower Saxony, was stripped of his role after he described the Nazi resistance fighter Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg as a "traitor."
