German parliament bars AfD party staffers over security concerns

BERLIN

Germany's parliament has denied access to seven staffers of the far-right AfD party over security concerns, blocking them from entering the Bundestag building.

The parliament’s administration refused to issue parliamentary access passes to the seven individuals, all AfD employees, during the current legislative period, local media reported on Thursday.

The affected individuals include two staff members of the AfD parliamentary group and five employees of AfD lawmakers, a party spokesperson confirmed. The party declined to provide details about the specific allegations against the staffers.

According to Spiegel news magazine, the employees drew scrutiny due to connections to right-wing extremism or alleged ties to Russia.

The move comes as Germany's domestic intelligence agency in May classified the entire AfD as a "proven extremist group" after a three-year investigation, extending a designation previously applied only to several regional branches.

The agency concluded that the AfD pursues a far-right nationalist agenda that undermines Germany's democratic constitutional order, emphasizing that the party's understanding of citizenship "based on ethnicity and ancestry" is incompatible with democratic principles.

Despite ongoing controversies and intelligence monitoring, the AfD has surged in popularity. A Wednesday poll by YouGov showed the anti-immigration party at 25%, matching Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU alliance. Since the February 2025 elections, AfD support has climbed nearly 5 percentage points, while Merz's conservatives have dropped 3.5 percentage points.