BERLIN

German authorities on Wednesday accused the far-right AfD party of using parliamentary inquiries to gather sensitive intelligence on critical infrastructure, allegedly to serve Russian interests.

Georg Maier, interior minister of the eastern state of Thuringia, said AfD lawmakers have submitted numerous parliamentary questions in recent months seeking detailed information about the police, the military, and sensitive security infrastructure.

"The AfD shows particular interest in police IT systems and equipment, especially in drone detection and defense," Maier told the Handelsblatt newspaper. He said the party has also sought information about civil protection resources, healthcare facilities, and German military activities. “One cannot help but get the impression that the AfD is working through a list of checklist from the Kremlin with its inquiries,” Maier said.

Marc Henrichmann, a member of the German parliament's intelligence committee, said he shares the assessment of Thuringia's interior minister. "Russia is naturally using its obvious influence in parliament, especially in the AfD, to spy and obtain sensitive information," the conservative lawmaker told Handelsblatt. He claimed Russia's only interest in the party was to use it for hybrid warfare.

The far-right party has long criticized Germany's military support to Ukraine and faced mounting scrutiny over its alleged ties to Russia. The AfD came in second in the February 2025 federal elections, but current surveys show it has become the strongest party with 26%—two points ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc. The AfD's senior lawmaker Bernd Baumann dismissed the espionage allegations, calling them "absurd suspicions."