The Alternative for Germany party’s gains in elections in two German states have brought concerns over the protection of intelligence and European security cooperation back to the fore, amid what European countries describe as Russian hybrid attacks in the grey zone between war and peace.
The concerns centre on the possibility that the party could enter a state government, giving it the ability to influence local security agencies or access sensitive information. Joseph Wippl, a former CIA officer, said in comments carried by I Paper that the party’s success in elections in two states opened the door to new security risks.
Wippl headed the agency’s Berlin station between 2001 and 2003 and also worked in West Germany during the Cold War. Wippl added that “the Russians would certainly have agents inside the AfD”, considering that many of the party’s supporters “would undoubtedly be inclined towards Russian positions and propaganda”.
The party’s results in two German states
These assessments remain attributed to him, amid a broader debate in Germany over the party’s positions and its political and ideological links with Moscow. The AfD won the largest number of seats in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, after achieving a similar success in Saxony-Anhalt. However, the party was unable to form a government in either state after its political rivals refused to enter coalitions with it.
Wippl believes that the party’s rise to power in one state could create a complex security problem, given that Germany’s intelligence system is divided between the federal and state levels. Alongside the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the foreign intelligence service, there are separate offices for the protection of the constitution in each of Germany’s 16 states.
The former US official warned that interference by an AfD-led state government in the work of an intelligence service, or the leaking of information from it, could jeopardise information-sharing with other agencies. He described the possibility as “a real can of worms”, referring to the chain of problems that could arise within Germany’s and Europe’s security cooperation system.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius had earlier called for the party to be prevented from accessing classified information relating to military bases and training areas. German security agencies have classified the AfD or some of its branches as extremist, while the party rejected those classifications and said they were politicised.
European accusations of covert Russian operations
The warnings come as European countries accuse Russia of carrying out covert activities and hybrid attacks. Wippl said Moscow was highly active in operations in Germany and Europe, including sabotage and assassination plots, while Russia faces accusations of using foreign agents to carry out attacks while retaining broad scope for plausible deniability.
Wippl said those operations could produce results contrary to Moscow’s aims by prompting Europeans to regard Russia as a direct threat on their own territory. He added that Berlin was working to strengthen its security agencies in response to Russian activity.
Wippl expressed hope that the war in Ukraine would have ended, or been temporarily halted, before the German parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2029. But he acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the course of the war, asking whether the two sides would reach a long-term truce or whether the conflict would stop for a period before resuming later.
