Why does Berlin want to withhold classified info from opposition-run states?

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has called for regional governments to be cut off from the federal intelligence-sharing network if the country’s most popular party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), wins upcoming state elections.

The minister branded the right-wing party, which has enjoyed the largest share of public support for months, “anti-democratic” in an interview with Bild published on Sunday, and said Berlin should be prepared to “consistently counter it.”

Pistorius claimed that the AfD could not be trusted with state secrets because of its alleged “undeniable” ties to Moscow.

“We are intensively examining the question of to whom we can grant access to classified information,” said Pistorius, who has been a vocal proponent of Germany’s rapid militarization and potential mandatory conscription to prepare for a direct conflict with Russia as early as 2028.

Is the AfD ‘extremist’?

Pistorius claimed that the AfD is “opposed to the very constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany” and willing to “destroy our democracy from within.” All other major political parties in Germany have been avoiding virtually any form of cooperation with what they call the “far right” as part of an informal ban policy known as the “firewall.”

The AfD itself has been battling the “far-right” label almost since the party’s founding in 2013. Initially a party of Euroskeptics, the AfD adopted harsh anti-immigration rhetoric at the height of the 2015 refugee crisis, putting it on a collision course with virtually every other major political party in Germany.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, sought to label it a “confirmed right-wing extremist organization” in 2025. The AfD challenged the designation in the Administrative Court of Cologne, which issued a temporary injunction in the case last year pending a final ruling.

Back in 2025, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel described her party as a “libertarian conservative” force that fights bureaucracy and seeks to “free the people from the state.” She also criticized the then-German government for fostering “immigration into the social system” and accused the EU of Hitler-like censorship in a lengthy interview with Elon Musk on X ahead of snap elections.

Is the AfD tied to Russia?

Pistorius has insisted that no proof is needed of the AfD’s supposed ties to Moscow and that “you only have to listen to the public statements of many, many AfD representatives.” He also claimed that there is a “suspicion” that the party receives “money coming from Russia.”

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, the AfD was the only German political party to criticize EU sanctions and Berlin’s hardline stance on Russia as self-harming, calling instead for a pragmatic approach. The decision to abandon Russian energy imports played a major role in slowing down the German economy, which contracted in 2023 and 2024, and showed a minuscule 0.2% growth in 2025.

Weidel told Reuters last week that Berlin urgently needed to lift the ban on Russian oil and gas imports to prop up its struggling economy, arguing that “the loss of this energy has set us back years.”

“Cheap energy from Russia was the secret of the success of ‘Made in Germany’. We need it back,” she said. The party’s co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, has also advocated the restoration of dialogue with Russia and previously urged Merz to “call Moscow.”

The AfD has also criticized Berlin’s unquestioning support for Ukraine and maintained that Kiev should pay compensation for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines that delivered Russian natural gas to Germany.

There is no hard proof of Moscow providing funding or any other form of assistance to the right-wing party, although German media claimed back in 2018 that some party members had traveled to Moscow on a “Russian-sponsored charter.” Only one of the three politicians in question is still an AfD member.

In 2024, AfD MEP Petr Bystron was accused of receiving money from a media network allegedly linked to Russia in exchange for “spreading Kremlin narratives.” He denied the accusations and called the still-pending probe politically motivated.

Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly welcomed the party’s pragmatic approach to Germany’s national interests – but so have US President Donald Trump and key figures in his administration and allied circles, including Musk, who openly campaigned on behalf of the AfD.

Why attack the AfD now?

The AfD is projected to perform well in the upcoming regional elections in two eastern German states, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while in Berlin it is also locked in a four-way statistical tie for first place in an exceptionally fragmented political landscape.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD could gain 35% of the vote, according to a survey conducted by the INSA polling agency in late June. The result might make it the strongest faction in the regional legislature, but would hardly allow it to form a government single-handedly.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the party is polling at 41%, nearly 20 percentage points ahead of its closest competitors from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), according to another INSA survey published last week. If the party is able to keep this margin of victory, it could potentially even secure a majority in the regional parliament and form a government without entering a coalition.

The AfD had already gained record support in two regional elections outside its traditional political heartland in March 2026, securing nearly 20% of the vote in the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and nearly 19% in Baden-Wurttemberg, virtually doubling its results compared to the previous elections in both cases.

How unpopular is the current German government?

The AfD has been steadily gaining ground in recent months amid the plummeting ratings of Merz’s government. An INSA survey published in late June suggested that it enjoys the greatest support among all German parties, at 29%, seven percentage points ahead of the CDU.

Support for the current German cabinet has hit a record low, with as many as 84% of Germans dissatisfied with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s performance, including 51% of supporters of his own party, according to an ARD-DeutschlandTrend poll published last week.

The survey results make Merz the least popular chancellor in almost 30 years. Respondents were mostly concerned about the country losing its attractiveness for business (78%), the negative effects of climate change (66%), and the migrant influx under the current government (51%), the poll suggested.

The US-based opinion research institute Morning Consult also ranked Merz the world’s most unpopular leader in April.