German Government Opens Discussion on Having Secret Police Spy on Right-Wing Opposition Party
by Cassandra Fairbanks
TheGatewayPundit.com
November 12, 2018
Angela Merkel’s government is now opening discussion into having the interior secret service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz), spy on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) — the biggest opposition party in the nation.
Germany has a long tradition of suppressing political opposition by using secret police — from the Nazi Gestapo to the East German Stasi.
Participants vote during the Alternative for Germany (AfD) two-day party congress in Augsburg, Germany, June 30, 2018. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
Hans-Georg Maaßen, the Conservative head of the Verfassungsschutz, argued against the surveillance, as there is no evidence that the AfD endangers the constitution. He has now been forced out of office.
In May, Merkel claimed that “mobs” were “hunting down foreigners of the streets of Chemnitz” over the killing of a young German man by “refugees.” Hans-Georg Maaßen called her out on her lie, publicly declaring that there is no evidence anyone was “hunting down” anyone from Chemnitz. He was subsequently forced to step down.
During his time in office, Hans-Georg Maaßen was extremely effective, managing to prevent seven major terror attacks since 2015. The AfD believes that he will now be replaced by someone who is more concerned with spying on political opponents than stopping terrorism.
The AfD has been repeatedly accused of being “far-right” or even “neo-Nazis” for political means, much like Trump supporters so often are here in the United States. The AfD emphatically denies these allegations.
However, AfD MP Petr Bystron, a Czech refugee from Communism, was surveilled by the Bavarian Verfassungsschutz over a Facebook post where he called protests by the Identitarian Movement “non-violent” and “humorous”. Though Bystron made it clear that he and the AfD were not part of the Identitarian Movement, his house was searched and a hard drive containing his children’s cartoons was confiscated.
Bystron went to court arguing against the illegal search and seizure and against publishing the surveillance campaign. He won.
“When I fled from Communism 30 years ago, I never would have dreamed that one day, I would be pursued by the secret police again, with the same Stalinist smear tactics, but this time in the West, in a supposed democracy. But Angela Merkel was a propaganda officer in the Socialist Youth League FDJ, so I guess these are just her natural instincts coming out,” Bystron told The Gateway Pundit
Bystron’s office explained to The Gateway Pundit that they are concerned the same strategy may now be applied to the AfD as a whole.
In Germany, if you are a government official or a legal professional you are not allowed to associate with any group that is under observation by the Verfassungsschutz. This means that the AfD would not be able to work with any legal professionals and would essentially be crippled — without any sort of trial to defend themselves.
To avoid being labeled as an “enemy of the constitution,” the AfD had legal expert Prof. Dietrich Murswiek put together a list of guidelines they should follow. He also created a list of phrases previously used by AfD politicians that could illegally be used to justify surveillance, including “criminal aliens,” “Conservative revolution,” and “invaders.” He suggested that though these terms and phrases were perfectly legal, the party may want to avoid them to prevent future problems.
The Rest…HERE
