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Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - The AfD in the southwest regards the possible observation of the entire party by the protection of the constitution as a political maneuver.
"If, with the AfD, the nation's strongest opposition party is to be observed by the secret service seven weeks before a state election, that's not just an injustice," said Deputy State Chairman Markus Frohnmaier of the dpa in Stuttgart.
"It is also a serious attack on free and democratic elections when the citizens are to be influenced in their voting decisions by a government-controlled secret service."
A new state parliament will be elected in Baden-Württemberg on March 14th.
Several media had previously reported that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution wanted to make a decision on how to deal with the AfD in the coming week.
Accordingly, the AfD should be declared a suspected right-wing extremist case.
"Suspected case" is a working category of the constitution protection authorities, which does not have to mean the same depending on the federal state.
When the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution - which is at issue in this case - speaks of a suspected case, it sees “sufficiently weighty factual indications” for anti-constitutional efforts.
Under strict conditions, the office can, for example, observe members or recruit informants in such cases.
The monitoring of telephone calls, for example, is also conceivable, but must be approved.
The aim is to find out whether the suspicion can be corroborated and whether the group can possibly be classified as proven extremist.