NPR

Germany Places Right-Wing Opposition Party Under Domestic Surveillance

German investigators can now cultivate informants, tap phone calls and read emails as part of its inquiry. The Alternative for Germany party says the move is politically motivated.
Alexander Gauland, a leader in Germany's right-wing AfD political party, leaves a news conference after discussing reports that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has deemed his entire party under suspicion of being a threat to the constitution.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has put the country's largest opposition party under surveillance as a potential threat to the country's constitution, according to public broadcaster ARD and other media outlets. The move affects dozens of lawmakers who are in the right-wing Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.

Members of the AfD, one party leader accused Chancellor Angela Merkel's government of "trying to stigmatize us and to really put us in the Nazi corner."

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