#afd

#afd

Germany has no equivalent of the US' specialized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, though that would change if the Bavarian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had its way. Apparently directly inspired by the actions of ICE under President Donald Trump's administration, an internal paper from the far-right party seen by the German newspaper taz this week proposed that a new authority be created within the Bavarian state police named the Asyl-, Fahndungs- und Abschiebegruppe (AFA), or the "Asylum, Tracing and Deportation group."

The ruling coalition in Germany's eastern state of Brandenburg lost its majority on Tuesday, sparking calls from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) for new elections. Centre-left SPD state premier Dietmar Woidke said he would run a minority government for now and seek talks on a new alliance with the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The crisis was sparked when Woidke ended a year-old coalition with the BSW, a far-left Moscow-friendly party, citing "constant disagreements" within the junior coalition partner.

At the BKA conference, she was discussing democracy in Germany. "At dinners with perfectly ordinary colleagues and friends who love their country, I often hear them say after the second glass of wine, that they're considering whether they should leave the country," Buyx said. "Should leave," meaning they don't want to. Buyx didn't name the particular threat. But every police officer in the room knows who she's talking about: the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The debate was sparked back in October when a business association named Die Familienunternehmer (The Family Entrepreneurs) invited representatives of the AfD to its parliamentary evening in Berlin for the first time. In the words of its president, Marie-Christine Ostermann, the association thus lifted a national "contact ban" on the party that has been classified as "far-right and partially right-wing extremist" by Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

The debate was sparked back in October when a business association named Die Familienunternehmer (The Family Entrepreneurs) invited representatives of the AfD to its parliamentary evening in Berlin for the first time. In the words of its president Marie-Christine Ostermann, the association thus lifted a national "contact ban" on the party that has been classified as "far-right and partially right-wing extremist" by Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

The US state department announced on Thursday that the ban would apply to Germany's Antifa Ost, an anti-fascist group whose members have been prosecuted by German authorities for attacks on far-right figures; Italy's International Revolutionary Front, which sent explosive packages to the then president of the European Commission in 2003; and two organisations accused of planting bombs in Greece: Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense.

The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it won in the February elections which made it Germany's second strongest party.

"The impression is almost unavoidable that the AfD is working through a Kremlin order list with its inquiries," Maier said, adding that the questions had demanded "increasing intensity and depth of detail."

Voters in the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder have cast their ballots in a run-off election that could give the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the largest opposition party in parliament, its first mayoral victory in a German city. Independent candidate Axel Strasser and AfD contender Wilko Moller faced off on Sunday after leading the first-round vote on September 21, with Strasser receiving 32.4 percent of the vote and Moller 30.2 percent.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), now the biggest opposition party in the Bundestag, is steadily gaining support, with some polls suggesting that the AfD has pulled ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and its allied Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU). In September's municipal elections across North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most-populous state, the AfD tripled its share of the vote from 2020.

With a roaring noise, the yellow excavator razes the last remains of another derelict property in the Bismarck district of Gelsenkirchen to the ground. An entire street with seven houses is being flattened to make way for new houses and a kindergarten. The dilapidated properties and piles of rubbish in the street were not only a huge nuisance for local residents, but also a big campaign issue for the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD)which linked it to labor migration from Southeast Europe.

Since 2017, German political parties have had to pay a cumulative 1.8 million ($2.1 million) in administrative penalties with over half issued to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The fines pertain to issues such as illegal donations, the misuse of parliamentary group funds and the provision of false information in financial reports. And according to official figures reported in this weekend's Welt am Sonntag broadsheet and seen by the Germany dpa news agency, the AfD alone has been fined around 1.1 million.

During the television interview with ARD on Sunday, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, appeared at times to struggle to hear the questions being asked of her as protesters gathered below the provisional stage for the interview in Berlin. The speakers of a bus used as part of the demonstration blared the anti-AfD song Schei AfD Jodler, which hindered the interview's audio quality significantly for viewers at home.