German Intelligence Warns of Alarming Growth in AFD Extrermists

The Ger­man domes­tic intel­li­gence agency has uncov­ered alarm­ing growth in rad­i­cal mem­ber­ship with­in the coun­try’s largest oppo­si­tion par­ty. On June 10, 2025, Reuters report­ed that Ger­many’s domes­tic intel­li­gence agency found the num­ber of extrem­ists with­in the Alter­na­tive for Ger­many par­ty surged 77% to 20,000 mem­bers, while right-wing moti­vat­ed crimes jumped 47.4% nation­wide, includ­ing increas­es in attempt­ed mur­ders and arson attacks. The arti­cle begins:

Ger­many’s biggest oppo­si­tion par­ty the Alter­na­tive for Ger­many is har­bour­ing a grow­ing num­ber of right-wing extrem­ists, the domes­tic spy agency said in its annu­al report on Tues­day, report­ing also a surge in over­all crime moti­vat­ed by right-wing extrem­ism. The num­ber of extrem­ists with­in the AfD, which came sec­ond in a fed­er­al elec­tion in Feb­ru­ary, rose by 77% last year to 20,000 in tan­dem with a growth in par­ty mem­ber­ship and its shift right­wards, the agency said.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/germanys-far-right-afd-harbours-growing-number-extremists-spy-agency-2025–06-10/

Key Points

• The domes­tic intel­li­gence agency clas­si­fied the entire AfD as “extrem­ist” based on a 1,100-page expert report, though the par­ty has legal­ly chal­lenged this designation.
• Par­ty state­ments fre­quent­ly includ­ed xeno­pho­bic and anti-Mus­lim posi­tions, accus­ing migrants from Islam­ic coun­tries of cul­tur­al incom­pat­i­bil­i­ty and crim­i­nal inclinations.
• Thuringia AfD leader Björn Höcke made state­ments attack­ing Ger­many’s con­sti­tu­tion­al order, claim­ing elec­tions could “lead to the implo­sion of the car­tel par­ty system.”
• Right-wing extrem­ist crimes nation­wide increased dra­mat­i­cal­ly, with attempt­ed mur­ders ris­ing from 4 to 6 cas­es and arson attacks from 16 to 23 incidents.

Germany, AFD, and National Conservatism: Influence, Alliances, and Controversies

The Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (AfD) has emerged as a cen­tral force in the surge of nation­al con­ser­vatism in Ger­many, with its recent extrem­ist label by Ger­man intel­li­gence ignit­ing a con­sti­tu­tion­al cri­sis and inten­si­fy­ing debates about the bound­aries of demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nance. The AfD’s ascent is char­ac­ter­ized by deep­en­ing ties with Hungary’s Fidesz and active par­tic­i­pa­tion in transna­tion­al far-right events, reflect­ing its role as a con­duit for nation­al­ist and anti-glob­al­ist nar­ra­tives. This posi­tion has also led to diplo­mat­ic ten­sions with the Unit­ed States, as U.S. offi­cials have crit­i­cized Germany’s sur­veil­lance of the par­ty. The AfD’s influ­ence is fur­ther ampli­fied by Russ­ian-backed dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns, with inves­ti­ga­tions con­firm­ing that Russ­ian oper­a­tives have cul­ti­vat­ed rela­tion­ships with AfD politi­cians to under­mine sup­port for Ukraine and desta­bi­lize Ger­man democ­ra­cy. These trends are part of a broad­er Euro­pean shift, as nation­al con­ser­vatism gains ground amid eco­nom­ic anx­i­ety and anti-immi­grant sen­ti­ment, with the AfD poised to become the sec­ond-largest par­ty in the Ger­man par­lia­ment and labeled as “anti-con­sti­tu­tion­al” by the domes­tic intel­li­gence agency. Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion oper­a­tions, such as the Dop­pel­gänger cam­paign, have tar­get­ed Ger­man vot­ers to boost the AfD and dis­cred­it its rivals. The AfD’s ide­o­log­i­cal rad­i­cal­iza­tion and oper­a­tional alliances under­score its sig­nif­i­cance with­in a transna­tion­al net­work chal­leng­ing the lib­er­al demo­c­ra­t­ic order.

Exter­nal References:

1. Katya Adler: Far right looks for break­through in Ger­many’s election

2. Far-Right AfD Is Labeled Extrem­ist by Ger­many’s Intel­li­gence Agency

3. Rus­si­a’s dis­in­for­ma­tion oper­a­tions resur­face ahead of Ger­man election

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.