Andreas Kalbitz, candidate in the Brandenburg of the far-right group AfD during the elections in August 2019. - AFP

It's a first. An entire regional federation of the far-right German party, that of Brandenburg (east), has been placed under police surveillance because of its radicalism, local authorities announced on Monday.

For organizations considered dangerous

All the structures of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in this Land which surrounds the capital Berlin, and where the movement came in second position in regional elections in 2019 with 23.5% of the vote, become "a suspected case and an object of surveillance "on the part of the Interior Intelligence", told AFP the local Interior Ministry. This treatment, struck with the seal of infamy in Germany, is reserved for groups or organizations considered as being able to present a national danger. "We have enough tangible evidence showing that from this regional federation" emanate tendencies to challenge democratic rules and fundamental freedoms "guaranteed by the Constitution, further argued to the press the local head of Internal Intelligence Jörg Müller.

The sanction was criticized as an “error” by the AfD's main national leader, Alexander Gauland. It is in addition to a similar decision already taken by the German authorities in March and then targeting, at the national level, the most radical fringe within the AfD, called "The Wing" and close to the neo-Nazis.

AfD spectacular eruption in 2017

One of the representatives of this movement, Andreas Kalbitz, long directed the AfD federation in Brandenburg, before being recently expelled from the party for having concealed his past membership in a neo-Nazi group. However, he continued to exercise a great influence there and challenged his exclusion before the courts, decided under the impulse of certain party leaders wishing to maintain a respectable image. The AfD had erupted spectacularly on the national political scene in September 2017 during the last legislative elections, becoming the main opposition force. But the movement has since plateaued in the polls and internal rivalries have broken out in recent months between radical and moderate currents on the future course of the AfD.

The government accuses the party of having encouraged and legitimized, through its anti-migrant speeches or the rehabilitation of Germany's Nazi past, the resurgence of far-right terrorism noted in the country. On Tuesday, the trial of a neo-Nazi sympathizer, allegedly responsible for the murder a year ago of a pro-migrant politician member of the conservative party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, is due to open in Frankfurt.

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