Brandenburg constitutional protectors use informants in the AfD

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Berlin (dpa) - The Brandenburger Verfassungsschutz uses informants within the AfD to obtain information.

That said the head of the state office for the protection of the constitution, Jörg Müller, the «Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung» (FAS).

«The law wants us to capture the AfD milieu with intelligence resources.

So we do it - also with «covert information providers».

I can't currently complain about the access situation, ”said Müller.

Attempts to recruit the FAS were also confirmed by the AfD, namely by the head of the party's constitutional protection working group, Roland Hartwig, and by the chairman of the youth party, Damian Lohr.

According to the report, some federal states deliberately refrain from recruiting so-called shop stewards who provide information to security authorities.

The President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, explains the reluctance with formal reasons.

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The secret service must first have exhausted other possibilities of observation before an informal mission is proportionate, and this means a great deal of effort.

«Finding sources takes the longest.

You can't stop them in the street and say: I'll buy you an ice cream, tell me.

That's where you put most of your work into, ”Kramer told the FAS.

When it came to smuggling spies into political parties, Kramer said, because of the great effort involved: "Forget it."

The "wing" of the AfD, which has now officially been dissolved, is classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a certain right-wing extremist tendency.

The youth organization Junge Alternative is treated by the authority as a suspected right-wing extremist case.

Originally, the federal and state authorities for the protection of the constitution wanted to announce a joint assessment of the party as a whole this autumn.

But now it could take a little longer.

Because in the leadership of the AfD is currently raging a power struggle, the outcome of which could decide how this assessment turns out in the end.

Report of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung"