Germany's far-right party under lens

Berlin [Germany], Jan 17 (ANI): Some sections of far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will be put under surveillance, said the country's domestic security agency.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said that it would put the AfD youth wing, 'Junge Alternative' (JA), and the party's far-right politician Bjorn Hocke and his supporters under the lens, CNN reported.
Defending the move, BfV President Thomas Haldenwang said that the JA party members showed ''clear evidence of an anti-immigration and particularly anti-Muslim attitude," that violates Germany's democratic principles.
He added that Hocke and his supporters are known for propagating "political rhetoric" that is in contrast to Germany's constitution provisions of human dignity, equality and democracy.
Haldenwang asserted that the AfD party believed in "excluding and denouncing foreigners, migrants, Muslims in particular, and persons having a different political opinion and depriving them of almost all of their rights."
In 2017, Hocke courted controversy when he said that Germany should not feel guilty about Nazi atrocities. Referring to the Holocaust memorial unveiled in Berlin in 2005, the German far-right politician claimed that the people of the country were the "only people in the world who planted a memorial of shame in the heart of their capital," as per the report.
The AfD party was formed in the backdrop of the European debt crisis and as an anti-European party in 2013. After the economic turmoil eased out, the far-right party shifted its focus to immigration and Islam.
In September 2017, the AfD became the first right-wing party to enter Germany's Parliament in nearly 60 years, securing around 13 per cent of the vote.
According to the manifesto, the AfD claims that "Islam does not belong to Germany," adding that Muslims in Germany "a big danger for our state, our society and our system of values."
It has urged for the capping of the number of refugees allowed to enter Germany, citing the country's "protection". The party has, however, argued that the German government should accept migrants possessing high technical skills. (ANI)