BERLIN, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Germany's domestic intelligence service (BfV) has labelled the far right populist party Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) as a so-called examination case, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel reported on Tuesday.

Based on public statements by AfD members and connections to right-wing extremists, the domestic intelligence service will investigate to which extend right-wing extremist efforts are being made by the AfD, according to Tagesspiegel.

In September 2018, the Thuringian office of the BfV had already declared the regional branch of the AfD as such an examination case. Now, the AfD will be under the scrutiny of Germany's domestic intelligence service nationwide.

The AfD youth organization "Junge Alternative" (JA) and the AfD internal group "Der Fluegel" are already classified as suspect cases by the German intelligence service, which marks the next level after the examination case. In some German states, the youth organization JA is even under surveillance by the BfV.

In the event of a suspected case, German intelligence services are able to use measures such as observation and cooperation with informants as well as the recording of personal data.

Bjoern Hoecke, spokesman for the group "Der Fluegel" within the AfD and chairman of the Thuringian AfD regional branch, had, among other things, described the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a "memorial of disgrace" and called for the German government's policy of memory with regard to the Third Reich to be "changed by 180 degrees". Enditem

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