Ties to Russia sow alarm in Germany
Far-right party a security worry
BERLIN — To enter a secret session of Germany’s parliament, lawmakers must lock their phones and leave them outside. Inside, they are not even allowed to take notes. Yet, to many politicians, these precautions against espionage now feel like something of a farce.
Because seated alongside them in those classified meetings are members of the Alternative for Germany, the far-right party known by its German abbreviation, AfD.
In the past few months alone, a leading AfD politician was accused of taking money from proKremlin strategists. One of the party’s parliamentary aides was exposed as having links to a Russian intelligence operative. And some of its state lawmakers flew to Moscow to observe Russia’s stage-managed elections.
“To know with certainty that sitting there, while these sensitive issues are discussed, are lawmakers with proven connections to Moscow — it doesn’t just make me uncomfortable. It worries me,” said Erhard Grundl, a Green party member of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
The AfD called such comments “baseless.”
Although some of the accusations against the AfD may be attempts at point-scoring by political rivals, the security concerns are real. As evidence of the party’s links to Moscow accumulates, suspicions are being expressed across the spectrum of mainstream German politics.
“The AfD keeps acting like the long arm of the terrorist state Russia,” Roderich Kiesewetter, deputy head of the parliament’s intelligence committee and a member of the centerright Christian Democrats, wrote on social media.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Europe has struggled to fend off influence operations by Russia aimed at weakening Western unity and resolve. The worries extend beyond eavesdropping and spying to include Moscow’s ties to political parties, especially on the far right, which are proving to be useful tools for the Kremlin.
In Germany and elsewhere, that alarm is only growing before elections for the European parliament in June, as many of these parties are expected to have their best showings ever.
The AfD, which is against weapons deliveries to Ukraine and calls for an end to sanctions on Russia, is not only vying to become the second-strongest German party in European parliamentary elections. It is poised to become the leading force in three eastern state elections in Germany this fall. That gives the AfD the possibility, albeit still unlikely, that it could take control of a state government.
“This would be a whole new situation with regards to Russia, where the people making propaganda, passing information, could also actually be in power,” said Martina Renner, a lawmaker from the Left party, who sits on the parliament’s domestic security committee.