Electronic surveillance

German officials consider surveillance of nationalist party

Germany's domestic intelligence agencies are discussing what steps might be required to put the nationalist AfD party under surveillance.
The party, whose acronym stands for Alternative for Germany, came third in last year's elections. Several of its members have been criticized for expressing anti-Semitic or revisionist views. Others have been found to have ties to far-right groups and foreign governments considered hostile to Germany.
An interior ministry spokeswoman said the 17 federal and state agencies tasked with monitoring political extremism in Germany were meeting on the issue Wednesday.
Annegret Korff told reporters in Berlin that "such a decision needs to be well-prepared" to ensure all legal requirements for surveillance are met.
She added that based on current information, authorities don't consider AfD to have extremist positions overall.

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