Germany’s lower chamber of parliament, the Bundestag, on Friday confirmed that it has banned seven staff members from entering the building after reports they were associates of the far-right AfD.
“To date, the issuing of a pass for members of parliament or employees of parliamentary groups has been refused in seven cases during this legislative term,” a spokeswoman told AFP.
“In two other cases, access to IT systems has been refused,” she added, without revealing the identity of the staff concerned.
The refusal came after background checks, the spokeswoman said, justifying the policy as a way of avoiding risks “to the security of the members of the Bundestag”.
According to an investigation published on Friday by Der Spiegel, those banned are all associates of the AfD, whose proximity to Russia and far-right movements has caught the attention of parliamentary administrators.
Some are said to have been convicted of incitement to hatred or offences against firearms legislation, the weekly said.
One is alleged to have thrown a smoke bomb at a refugee reception centre.
In recent months, the AfD, which is now the main opposition party in the Bundestag, has been accused by other parties of harbouring a “pro-Russian sleeper cell” and passing sensitive information to Moscow.
On Wednesday, a search was carried out at the home and offices of a regional AfD lawmaker on suspicion of breaking an export embargo to Belarus.
According to an investigation by public service broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, published in early 2024, the AfD at the time employed more than 100 people flagged as right-wing extremists by the German domestic intelligence services.
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