More than a hundred extremists working for the AfD in the German Parliament | Germany

The number of extremists employed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group is greater than previously known, according to an investigation by Bayerische Rundfunk (BR): there are more than a hundred people who come from extremist backgrounds.

The AfD is a peculiar case in the sense that as a whole it is not considered an extremist party by the Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV, in the German acronym, the internal intelligence services), but some parts are, such as the party youth Young Alternative, or the sections of three states, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony.

The Bavarian public broadcaster explains that there is no certain data on the number of people employed by the AfD parliamentary group (78 deputies) and that its work was carried out using several internal Parliament lists, totaling around 500 people, allowing the identification of some people who are identified in BfV reports – there were participants in neo-Nazi marches in several cities – and others who have leadership positions in organizations that are being observed by the agency for being a danger to democracy. There are also 25 parliamentary employees who are from Jovem Alternativa.

More than half of AfD deputies are working in their offices people who are active in organizations described as far-right by the BfV, including co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla.

Among the cases identified by BR, there were also people who left the AfD due to controversies involving their extremism – one of them, Frank Pasemann, was expelled in 2020 after being a deputy (accused of damaging the party and anti-Semitism). , and another, Marvin Neumann, left under pressure the following year after making a statement about “white supremacy.”

Among the names of people who work for AfD parliamentarians there is also a case of a person who is prevented from entering the Parliament building in Berlin: Mario Müller, who was at the Potsdam meeting where the idea of ​​“remigration” was discussed. with plans to expel foreigners from Germany and even people with German citizenship.

News about this meeting in site Correctiv investigation sparked a wave of outrage and large demonstrations for democracy in Germany.