Inquiry examines how Thuringia intelligence agency classified AfD

A former department head told Thuringia’s parliamentary inquiry that an internal directive guided the state intelligence agency’s initial classification of the AfD, but offered little practical instruction on how to handle such cases.

The witness said the agency had a service directive called “Evaluation.” In his view, the category of a case for review received only cursory treatment and very few rules. He described the agency’s known three-stage process as a case for review, a suspected case, and finally a designation as a confirmed far-right extremist organization.

The Thuringian AfD became a suspected case in March 2020. One year later, in March 2021, the state branch received the confirmed far-right extremist designation. The former official stressed that he had left the agency in June 2019 and could not testify about the classifications themselves.

The committee’s formal mandate includes examining the conduct of state intelligence chief Stephan Kramer and other officials. It is investigating whether Kramer violated legal or civil-service obligations, met the political neutrality expected of an intelligence chief, or misused his office for political purposes. Kramer has led the agency since 2015.

The AfD state parliamentary group, led by Björn Höcke, initiated the inquiry. During questioning, a former official said Kramer had indicated in several interviews before taking office that he could imagine placing the AfD under observation. “That is certainly a pointer at a time when the question, we are talking about 2015, certainly was not yet being discussed with the same intensity,” he said. Left Party lawmaker Katharina König-Preuss argued that the case showed the intelligence service was unsuitable as an early-warning system, since studies had already identified the AfD’s right-wing and partly far-right character in 2014. Kramer attended the public hearing and followed the testimony.

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That is certainly a pointer at a time when the question, we are talking about 2015, certainly was not yet being discussed with the same intensity.