New York Times: “Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has placed the far-right Alternative for Germany under observation as a potential threat to the country’s democracy, officials said on Wednesday, setting the stage for a battle between the state and a party that is the main opposition in Parliament. It is the first time in Germany’s postwar history that a party represented in the federal Parliament has elicited such intense scrutiny, and it highlights an uneasy question facing the country’s institutions: What to do with a party that is considered a danger to democracy – but is popular in parts of the country and has become entrenched at all levels of politics?”
“That question has particular resonance in an election year that will see Angela Merkel step down after 16 years as chancellor, a tenure in which she became a symbol of a Germany that has learned from its history and welcomes refugees. The leaders of the Alternative for Germany, AfD, as the party is known, routinely accuse Muslim immigrants of being criminals, attack the press and question the universalist principles of liberal democracy.”