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The property of the publisher Kubitschek in Schnellroda - hostel for the Antaios publishing house and the »Institute for State Policy« classified there as a right-wing extremist
Photo: Peter Endig / dpa
The AfD leadership sees the proximity of its members to the right-wing extremist Institute for State Policy (IfS) as no major problem. The think tank in Schnellroda, Saxony-Anhalt, run by publisher Götz Kubitschek, was classified as a right-wing extremist group by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt. A member of the AfD federal executive now said to the MDR: »The change in the assessment of this institute or association by a single state authority in Saxony-Anhalt [...] does not constitute a sufficient reason for the AfD's federal executive to comment or even judge itself to express."
According to research by the MDR magazine »exactly«, at least 70 AfD representatives have connections to Kubtischek IfS.
These are members of the Bundestag, several state parliaments as well as functionaries and employees of the party.
In particular, numerous members of the East German AfD state associations and supporters of the formally disbanded, right-wing extremist "wing" of the party have references to the institute, which is considered to be the think tank of the so-called New Right.
Among them are leading and prominent party members such as Thuringia's AfD state chief Björn Höcke, the former parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Alexander Gauland, and Saxony-Anhalt's parliamentary group leader Oliver Kirchner.
Shaped by »racist and biological perspectives«
The AfD member of the Bundestag Harald Weyel therefore employs the IfS managing director Erik Lehnert as an employee in his parliamentary office.
According to the MDR, numerous members of the AfD youth organization “Junge Alternative” maintain contacts with the IfS and its environment.
The latest report from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution from Saxony-Anhalt states that the IfS is “a leading actor” of the so-called New Right and shaped by “racist and biological perspectives”.
It is directed against the free and democratic basic order.
With the classification, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution can monitor the institute with secret service means.
This includes wiretapping phones, reading emails and using informants.
mrc / dpa
