Court Gives Greenlight For German Agency to Spy on Populist Party

A German administrative court has given the country’s domestic intelligence agency the green light to actively spy on the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has 81 seats in the nation’s Bundestag, after the agency labelled the party a “suspicious entity.”

The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country’s domestic intelligence agency, will now be able to actively spy on the AfD after a court in Cologne shot down a legal challenge by the party against the classification of extremism by the BfV.

The administrative court is said to have dismissed claims by the AfD that the BfV evaluation was akin to banning the party, and rejected the fact sections of the party such as the Flügel (wing), a socially conservative faction including firebrand Björn Höcke, had been disbanded, broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports.