German spy agency brands far-right AfD as ‘extremist’, opens way for closer vigil

Germany's spy agency on Friday classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as "extremist", enabling it to step up monitoring of the country's biggest opposition party, which decried the move as a "blow against democracy".

A 1,100-page report by experts found that the AfD is a racist and anti-Muslim organisation, a finding that grants the security services powers to recruit informants and intercept party communications.

"Central to our assessment is the ethnically and ancestrally defined concept of the people that shapes the AfD, which devalues entire segments of the population in Germany and violates their human dignity," the BfV domestic intelligence agency said in a statement.