German Secret Service BfV to Decide on Surveillance of AfD by 2019 - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) will decide whether to place the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) under partial or full surveillance before 2019, the Spiegel newspaper reported on Friday

BfV Vice President Thomas Haldenwang has told the internal affairs committee of the Bundestag that the agency was considering such move due to possible anti-constitutional trends within the party, the Spiegel reported.

According to the publication, 13 of the 16 German federal states sent extensive materials to the counterintelligence service regarding "possible anti-constitutional tendencies in AfD," most of the documents contained two-digit or even three-digit number of pages.

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According to Baden-Wuerttemberg state Interior Minister Thomas Strobl, AfD is developing in the direction of right-wing extremism, and it is up to counterintelligence service to decide on the issue, but it is necessary to act quickly if there are reasons for starting surveillance.

In early September, media reported that BfV office in the federal state of Thuringia will launch a systematic check of the activities of the local branch of the AfD party for compliance with the basic law of Germany.