(German) Domestic Intelligence Report Highlights AfD Extremism [View all]

[steve2470]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-intelligence-report-highlights-afd-extremism-a-1249150.html

January 23, 2019 11:54 AM

When Andreas Kalbitz was elected to represent the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Brandenburg state parliament, he immediately signed a membership application for the "German Parliamentary Society." The venerable club, founded in 1951, is located right next to the Reichstag building in Berlin and is open to all state and federal representatives. Kalbitz enjoys eating lunch in the "PG's" restaurant, where waiters in white livery know that he likes his white wine with extra ice cubes. Sometimes Kalbitz will retire to one of the club's plush salons for private conversations or spend his evenings at the bar in the basement. "Here is a refined parliamentary culture in the style of British clubs," raves Kalbitz, a former paratrooper.

But if you believe Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Kalbitz has no business belonging to a club that, in its own words, strives to promote a culture of "parliamentary collegiality." Kalbitz is suspected of posing a threat to the country's liberal democratic constitution. Just a few days ago, the BfV announced it was looking into initiating surveillance of the party's youth organization, the "Young Alternative." Meanwhile, the agency views the party's ultra-conservative faction, known as "The Wing," with an even greater degree of suspicion.

DER SPIEGEL has obtained a BfV report of more than 400 pages in which the agency does not condemn the AfD as a whole. But its focus on "The Wing" and its leader, Björn Höcke, is a tough blow to the far-right camp. The BfV closely analyzed the "ethno-nationalist ideology" of Höcke, Kalbitz and their like-minded colleagues. The report also makes clear that the intelligence service has run out of patience with AfD leaders Jörg Meuthen and Alexander Gauland's strategy of shirking responsible for the radicals in their party.

Kalbitz himself is a master of ambiguous communication. When he's not out in the marketplaces and taverns, instead finding himself in more dignified surroundings like the parliamentary society, the 46-year-old's tone is much milder. He recently offered a bottle of Crémant to anyone who could find even a single instance of hate speech against Muslims in any of his press releases. He doesn't seem terribly perturbed by the fact that his power base has fallen into the intelligence service's crosshairs. "OK, so I won't be able to live out my subversion fantasies on the phone anymore," he jokes.


Even though this is a few months old, I thought it was important.