‘Russian sleeper cell’: Can Germany’s far-right AfD be barred from sensitive intel?

What happens when Germany’s domestic intelligence service is monitored by the very people it is meant to spy on? The once speculative question has acquired sudden urgency – for both Germany and its allies – in the wake of a regional election that has put the German far right on the cusp of power for the first time since 1945. The Alternative for Democracy (AfD) party scored a resounding election win in Saxony-Anhalt earlier this month and is trying to form a coalition government in the small eastern state of Land, one of 16 that enjoy broad powers under Germany’s federal system. If it succeeds, the Moscow-friendly party could notably gain access to intelligence gathered by agencies tracking both domestic and external threats, a prospect that has spooked officials amid escalating tensions over the war in Ukraine and a surge in hybrid attacks attributed to Russia. Watch moreOnly the beginning? German far right's breakthrough shakes Europe to its core According to French investigative and satirical weekly Canard Enchaîné, such concerns were enough for France’s domestic intelligence agency to notify its German counterpart last week of its plans to withhold sensitive information about f...