Thuringia's Interior Minister warns of the security risk posed by a possible AfD taking office in Saxony-Anhalt

Berlin. Thuringia's Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) is concerned about the protection of important infrastructure in Germany if the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt appoints the Interior Minister in the future. “In view of the current attacks on our critical infrastructure, it would be fatal if the results of investigations by the security authorities were leaked to Russia,” Maier told the Handelsblatt.

The minister spoke of “enormous risks” for counterintelligence resulting from the possible assumption of office by an AfD interior minister. He referred to the AfD's relationship with Russia: "The Kremlin makes no secret of the fact that the AfD is Putin's most important instrument for destabilizing Germany."

The chairman of the parliamentary control committee in the Bundestag, Marc Henrichmann (CDU), shares Maier's concern. “The AfD is a security risk because of its ingratiation with Putin’s aggressive regime,” Henrichmann told Handelsblatt. As evidence, he pointed to the behavior of politically related parties: “Key witnesses to this are other right-wing populists in Europe who avoid the AfD because of its lack of differentiation from the despot in the Kremlin.”

The first parliamentary managing director of the Green parliamentary group, Irene Mihalic, made a similar statement. “In my opinion, the AfD is a willing instrument of Putin’s major hybrid attack on our country,” Mihalic told the Handelsblatt. She expressed an even deeper suspicion: “We have to assume that the AfD would pass on top secret information and access without batting an eyelid.”