Germany steps up surveillance of far-right party affiliates

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV said Wednesday it had concluded that three organizations linked to the country’s biggest far-right party had “extremist” goals that were in breach of the German constitution.

The announcement means that the agency can formally step up its surveillance of the youth wing of the Alternative for Germany, known as the Young Alternative, the Institute for State Politics and the group One Percent.

The BfV said its investigation had shown that the Young Alternative rejected the integration of immigrants from outside Europe based on “biological” assumptions and portrayed Muslims in general negatively. It expressed similar concerns about the Institute for State Politics and One Percent.

Alternative for Germany has so far failed in its legal bids to block security agencies from observing the party and its affiliates.

Germany’s top security official, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, accused the so-called New Right of trying to combine “an intellectual and modern appearance” with continued hatred toward refugees and migrants.

Authorities “will do everything to drain the breeding ground for right-wing extremist violence,” she said.