The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency in Thuringia has criticised his own service for staying too neutral on the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Stephan Kramer, who heads the east-central state’s LfV (State Office for the Protection of the Constitution), lamented that Germany’s national internal security agency was holding back a report on the AfD until after the country’s next election.
Kramer said it was “regrettable” that the Federal Office for Constitutional Protection (BfV) had decided to put political neutrality ahead of its task to warn the population of extremists.
His remarks drew harsh criticism, even from the Left.
Mathias Brodkorb – a former SPD state minister – said it was revealing how little Kramer, the head of a constitution protection agency, cared about the constitution.
Kramer made the criticisms of the BfV in an interview with public radio.
The BfV is currently at work on a report to determine whether the federal AfD party was “definitely right-wing extremist”.
But on February 23, Germans are electing a new parliament. And in November 2024, the BfV decided to postpone the publication of its findings until after the 2025 election, so as not to influence voters’ decisions.
The report has been awaited for a long time by many on the Left who hope it may serve as the basis for a parliamentary vote to ban AfD altogether.
“A resilient democracy must show that it is serious about its own rules”, Kramer said, alluding to a potential ban on the AfD.
If a party was inimical to the constitution, “further steps” could be taken if political discourse was not enough to counter it, he said.
Kramer dismissed AfD claims that Germany’s state security agencies – which fall within the remit of interior minister Nancy Faeser, a Social Democrat (SPD) – were biased.
This was “a transparent attempt” to delegitimate the protectors of the constitution, Kramer said.
However, many on the Right have criticised the constitutional protection agencies of partisanship.
In October, the state security agency in Lower Saxony showed support for the radical left-wing organisation Antifa in a social media post.
Speaking about a AfD convention that took place in Riesa (Saxony) on January 11-12, Kramer said party had lost all shame and was now openly displaying its German nationalism and hostility to the constitution.
He said some party slogans were similar to ones used by National Socialist members.
Kramer himself has been the subject of controversy in the past, too.
He was also the subject of a disciplinary procedure after accusations of bullying, and allegedly withheld evidence in favour of the AfD, according to media reports.
