German far-right lawmakers accused of Russia spying

BERLIN

Lawmakers from Germany's far-right AfD party have been accused of seeking to spy for Russia by asking numerous questions in a regional parliament on sensitive issues, a report said Wednesday.

Members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Thuringia state filed 47 questions asking about topics like critical infrastructure, state interior minister Georg Maier told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

"The impression is almost unavoidable that the AfD is working through a Kremlin order list with its inquiries," Maier said, adding the questions were being asked with "increasing intensity and depth of detail".

The inquiries have covered transport, water supply, as well as digital and energy infrastructure, according to Maier, from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner in Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government.

The AfD has submitted similar inquiries elsewhere in Germany, he said.

The anti-EU, anti-immigrant AfD has surged in popularity in recent times, recording its best ever result in a February general election when it came second behind Merz's centre-right CDU/CSU bloc.

Its poll ratings have since risen, with many surveys now ranking it as the biggest party in Germany.

Ringo Muehlmann, an AfD politician in Thuringia's parliament, dismissed Maier's allegations as "bizarre conspiracy theories" and accused him of trying to "criminalise political opponents".

Muehlmann said in a statement that parliamentary inquiries on such matters are "a cornerstone of democratic oversight".

Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency declined to comment on the allegations. Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, did not immediately respond to AFP.

Konstantin von Notz, a Green MP and deputy chairman of the German parliament's intelligence oversight committee, told AFP that AfD politicians have filed numerous "highly problematic inquiries", apparently at the behest of "authoritarian states".

The inquiries are "intended to deliberately help them weaken our country, spy on our critical infrastructure, and sabotage it", von Notz alleged.

The latest controversy to hit the AfD comes amid uproar over a planned visit to Moscow by the party's deputy leader in parliament.