Far-right German party threat to democracy so can be spied on, says court

BERLIN — The far-right Alternative for Germany party, one of the most popular in the country, is enough of a threat to democracy that intelligence officials can conduct wiretapping of its members and employ informants, a court ruled Monday.

The court once again rejected the AfD’s bid to overturn its designation as a “suspected extremist case,” a label applied by Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the BfV, in 2021.