Thuringia's Interior Minister wants to block the AfD's access to information about the protection of the constitution

Thuringia's Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) believes it is necessary for security policy reasons and legally justifiable to block the AfD's access to certain information in the Office for the Protection of the Constitution if it participates in government in Saxony-Anhalt. Specifically, he is concerned with data that is collected and stored by the Federal and State Office for the Protection of the Constitution to investigate right-wing extremist organizations and to counter espionage. Maier told “Welt”: “If the AfD appoints the Prime Minister in Saxony-Anhalt, then the champagne corks will pop in the Kremlin.” A federal state cannot be completely excluded from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, simply because of the protection of the population, for example from attacks. “But we can create Chinese walls in the common information system, i.e. partitions that block certain information,” he told the newspaper. When asked what specific information this was, he replied: "We would have to keep all information from the area of ​​right-wing extremism and the entire area of ​​espionage away from the AfD." Federal government does not speak about possible measures. Neither the federal government nor the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) have officially commented on such a scenario. However, in unofficial conversations, both government officials and politicians often refer to the example of Austria. During the term of office of the then Interior Minister Herbert Kickl from the right-wing populist FPÖ, there was a police raid on the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism in 2018, during which material from foreign partner services was also confiscated. Foreign services then restricted their cooperation with the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Court reviews classification of the AfD as right-wing extremist The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD Saxony-Anhalt as definitely right-wing extremist in November 2023. Accordingly, “numerous anti-Muslim, racist and anti-Semitic statements from officials and elected officials” were evaluated. The AfD is taking legal action against the classification. Top candidate Ulrich Siegmund said in a podcast a few days ago that he would consider abolishing the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt if the AfD were to form the government after the state elections. However, there are different opinions on this in the AfD, so a decision will be made on this in due course.