Germany's police chief worries about security effect of AfD in power

The head of Germany's criminal police office warned about the security consequences, should the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gain control of state governments following elections next year.

"What are the risks and how can they be dealt with?" Holger Münch wondered in an interview published on Monday by the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel.

"The party could then have access to sensitive data and information that needs to be protected, which would have an impact on cross-agency cooperation," he said.

Münch said he would not go so far as to destroy all documents, "but we have to think about how openly we could then deal with information within the network."

Five state elections are scheduled to take place in Germany in 2026, including in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the AfD is polling at around 40%. It cannot be ruled out that the AfD will have its first state premier by the end of 2026.

The police chief of the agency, known by its German acronym BKA, said he does not know how many AfD members work for him, as reporting party affiliation is not required before joining the federal criminal police work force.

"We don't ask whether someone is a member of the SPD, CDU or the Greens," said Münch, referring to the mainstream Social Democrats and Christian Democratic Union party members.

However, if the AfD were to be classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization, this would have an impact on the security checks carried out by his agency.