What happens when Germany’s domestic intelligence service is monitored by the very people it is meant to spy on? The once speculative question has acquired sudden urgency– for both Germany and its allies– in the wake of a regional election that has put the German far right on the cusp of power for the first time since 1945. The Alternative for Democracy (AfD) party scored a resounding election win in Saxony-Anhalt earlier this month and is trying to form a coalition government in the small eastern state of Land, one of 16 that enjoy broad powers under Germany’s federal system.
If it succeeds, the Moscow-friendly party could notably gain access to intelligence gathered by agencies tracking both domestic and external threats, a prospect that has spooked officials amid escalating tensions over the war in Ukraine and a surge in hybrid attacks attributed to Russia. Watch moreOnly the beginning? German far right's breakthrough shakes Europe to its core According to French investigative and satirical weekly Canard Enchaîné, such concerns were enough for France’s domestic intelligence agency to notify its German counterpart last week of its plans to withhold sensitive information about far-right extremists and Russia should the AfD govern in Saxony-Anhalt.
Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has consistently ranked right-wing extremists as the greatest threat to German democracy. Its latest annual report, published in June, said their number had increased significantly to 58,700 last year, fuelled by a surge in support for the AfD. The BfV stirred controversy last year when it designated the AfD as a right-wing “extremist group”, though the classification was suspended in February after a legal challenge from the party.
Ulrich Siegmund, co-leader of AfD's Saxony-Anhalt chapter, celebrates after his party won 44% of votes in state elections on September 6, 2026. © Fabrizio Bensch, While the national party is now designated as “suspected extremist”, pending a court ruling, its local chapter in Saxony-Anhalt has a “confirmed extremist” label that means it is under surveillance by federal intelligence, including undercover agents. German officials fear that an AfD government in the eastern state could use routine intelligence sharing to find those agents and scupper efforts to monitor it, said Jacob Ross, a Senior Research Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. Before the election in Saxony-Anhalt, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told German newspaper Bild that he opposed sharing classified information with AfD officials should they enter regional governments, stressing that their “close ties to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin are undeniable”.
The far-right party has repeatedly sparked alarm in Berlin by requesting information on vulnerabilities in German and NATO defences that would be of interest to Russia. In a heated debate at the Bundestag last November, a lawyer for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling conservatives accused the AfD of harbouring a Russian “sleeper cell” intent on investigating Germany’s critical infrastructure. Fears of sensitive information falling in Russian hands are well founded, according to Anton Shekhovtsov, director of the Austria-based Centre for Democratic Integrity and an expert on the European far right and its links to Russia.
With Hungary’s Viktor Orban out of power, “The AfD is now the largest and strongest pro-Russian party in the entire European Union,” Shekhovtsov argued, citing “extensive links with Russia that have been built over many years”. He added: “Obviously this is a weak spot for Germany and for the EU when it comes to dealing with Moscow and the political warfare that it is waging in Europe.” Read moreFive takeaways from Germany's regional elections after far-right gains According to a New York Times report published on Tuesday, the German federal government has moved swiftly to allay concerns among EU allies, drafting plans to block an AfD-led state government from reviewing sensitive intelligence. One notable measure involves denying AfD officials access to a secret war plan drafted in 2024, a 1,000-page blueprint detailing how Germany and its allies would respond to a Russian attack similar to the invasion of Ukraine.
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