The prospect of an AfD-led state government in Saxony-Anhalt is causing serious concern within Germany's interior authorities. Following the party's election victory, the chair of the Conference of Interior Ministers, Hamburg's Interior Senator Andy Grote of the SPD, called for the country's security agencies to be protected against extremist influence. "After yesterday's election result, a party confirmed as right-wing extremist in Saxony-Anhalt stands on the threshold of governing power," Grote warned on Monday in comments to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
"State authority, and with it control over security agencies, in the hands of a party hostile to the constitution and with close contacts to Russia is a serious security risk," Grote said. "As interior ministers, it is our responsibility to protect Germany's shared security structures against extremist influence of any kind," the Social Democrat added. "We as the Conference of Interior Ministers must now live up to that responsibility."
Thuringia's Interior Minister Georg Maier, also of the SPD, described what he called the "foreseeable takeover of government by the AfD" as a "real danger to national security". An AfD interior minister would have access to highly classified information "for example in the area of counter-espionage and right-wing extremism", Maier told the Tuesday edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Informants of the domestic intelligence service face being exposed."
Meetings of the Conference of Interior Ministers have so far operated under the principle of unanimity. It stipulates that decisions can only be taken if all 16 federal states and the national government agree. Maier stepped up the pressure on the conservative CDU/CSU bloc to change this quickly. "The Union's refusal to make provisions for this scenario in good time was irresponsible," he said. Plans for a resilient security architecture were already on the table, he noted. "I appeal to the Union to take the necessary steps with us now, at short notice," Maier urged.
The federal states carry the main responsibility for domestic security. As the most senior official overseeing the state's domestic intelligence service, an AfD interior minister would have considerable room for manoeuvre. He could, for instance, replace personnel within the domestic intelligence agency and set new priorities inside the security authorities. The handling of sensitive information by the AfD, a party regarded as close to Russia, is also a source of concern.
A spokesman for the Federal Interior Ministry, headed by Alexander Dobrindt of the CSU, was more reserved. "We do not yet have a changed government in that federal state," he said in Berlin. "For now, we have to wait and see what happens." He added that the Federal Interior Ministry is in regular contact with the state interior ministries on security matters in general.
The same assessment applied to the possible risk of information flowing to Russia, the ministry spokesman continued. The security agencies were, however, always "vigilant when it comes to threats emanating from Russia", he said.
"There is no new government in Saxony-Anhalt yet, and it does not look as though that will happen very quickly," deputy government spokesman Sebastian Hille said, referring to possible risks from an AfD takeover in areas such as research and education. "We will react when it becomes necessary, but that point has not yet come," he added.
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