German far-right lawmakers accused of Russia spying

BERLIN (AFP) — Lawmakers from Germany’s far-right AfD faced allegations from political rivals Wednesday that they used their positions to spy for Russia, as the party’s links to Moscow increasingly come under scrutiny.

Alternative for Germany politicians have lodged numerous parliamentary questions seeking details of critical infrastructure, security and military matters, particularly in the eastern state of Thuringia.

“The impression is almost unavoidable that the AfD is working through a Kremlin order list with its inquiries,” Georg Maier, the interior minister in Thurinigia, told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

The anti-EU, anti-migrant party, which has enjoyed a surge in popularity that propelled it to second place in February’s national election, rejects the allegations as baseless.

But several of the party’s leading figures maintain close and often controversial ties to Russia, and have been critical of German support for Ukraine in its fight against Moscow.

Maier, from the centre-left Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government, alleged that AfD lawmakers have been “abusing” their position to gather sensitive information.

It relates to matters such as the police, military and infrastructure that might be of interest to foreign powers, he said.

He said the AfD had filed 47 such inquiries in Thuringia — where the party is the biggest force but remains in opposition — in the past year alone, and have been posing questions with “increasing intensity and depth of detail.”

In the Bundestag, Germany’s national parliament, AfD lawmakers have also been filing numerous “highly problematic inquiries,” apparently at the behest of “authoritarian states,” according to Konstantin von Notz, a Green lawmaker and deputy chairman of the legislature’s intelligence oversight committee.

Von Notz told AFP that the inquiries are “intended to deliberately help them weaken our country, spy on our critical infrastructure, and sabotage it.”

‘Utterly ridiculous’

After its record result in February’s national election, coming second behind Merz’s center-right CDU/CSU bloc, the AfD’s poll ratings have continued to rise, with many surveys now ranking it as the biggest party in Germany.

AfD lawmakers vehemently deny spying.

Bernd Baumann, an AfD lawmaker in German parliament, told AFP that his colleagues have been trying to uncover details about Germany’s run-down infrastructure and neglected security plans.

“There is nothing secret about the facts uncovered. They form the basis of public, democratic opposition work,” Baumann said. “The fact that the other parties are now portraying that as espionage activity is utterly ridiculous and an expression of pure despair over the AfD’s poll ratings.”

Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency declined to comment on the allegations.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, did not immediately respond to AFP.

A government spokesman said it had been made aware of the accusations against the AfD but would not comment further.

The latest controversy to hit the AfD comes amid uproar over a planned visit to Moscow by the party’s deputy leader in parliament.

‘Led on a leash’

Von Notz, the Green lawmaker, contended that the AfD’s use of parliamentary inquiries in Germany appears to fit a broader pattern.

“It is quite striking that other right-wing extremist parties in our European neighbors have already submitted very similar questions — apparently for payment,” von Notz told AFP.

He urged law enforcement and counter-espionage services to investigate.

Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of the Bundestag’s intelligence oversight committee and a CDU member, told AFP that Russia has been using political parties like the AfD as part of a hybrid strategy to attack Europe.

German security services need to closely monitor whether “the AfD continues to allow itself to be led on a leash by the Kremlin as a hybrid part of Putin’s war effort,” he said.

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By BRYN STOLE Agence France-Presse