The German federal government is examining mechanisms to restrict access to classified information for state administrations headed by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) disclosed on Sunday. In an interview with Bild, Pistorius said security officials are “looking very closely at the question of whom we can grant access to classified information,” warning that sharing secrets with AfD ministers would be untenable because “their proximity to Putin is impossible to overlook.” The announcement carries immediate operational consequences: under Germany’s federal system, state interior and intelligence authorities hold significant powers, and withholding sensitive material would cut across established security cooperation.

The statement coincided with the AfD’s federal congress in Erfurt, Thuringia, where co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla were re-elected with 81.3 and just over 70 percent of delegate votes. From the podium, Weidel depicted an economically ruined country and vowed to restore national greatness through “rigorous spending cuts,” including ending cash benefits for Ukrainian refugees and limiting social transfers to those who have paid into the system. Chrupalla claimed that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government is steering toward “catastrophe” and that the AfD is now preparing to govern, first in the upcoming state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg‑Western Pomerania, and later nationally. The party leadership denies extremism and accuses mainstream parties of fomenting “hatred and incitement” against its supporters.

The congress was met by more than 30,000 counter-demonstrators, with police reporting dozens of criminal offences and some violent clashes, including an attack on journalists from a right‑leaning outlet. Organisers from the “Widersetzen” alliance argued that the AfD represents a fascist danger and that attempts to blockade the venue were legitimate; they noted the symbolic timing: the meeting fell on the centenary of the 1926 NSDAP congress in nearby Weimar. Inside the hall, Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke, whom the state’s domestic intelligence service classifies as a right‑wing extremist, declared that Germany needed “psychoanalysis” and a recovery of national identity. Political observers in Berlin note that the party leads national polls with around 29 percent, ahead of the CDU/CSU, and could win an absolute majority in Saxony‑Anhalt in September.

Viewed from European capitals, any move by Berlin to withhold classified information from a state government would be unprecedented in postwar Germany and would deepen the constitutional tension between federal and regional competencies. Simultaneously, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil’s draft budget foresees net new borrowing of €118.7 billion in 2027, with interest payments projected to rise from €4 billion in 2021 to €80.7 billion by 2030 — a fiscal squeeze that the AfD exploits to attack established parties. The state elections on 6 September represent the next concrete test: if the AfD secures a governing majority, federal‑state security protocols will face immediate strain, and the first AfD‑led state parliament would mark a structural shift in postwar German politics.