German government places Socialist Equality Party on subversive watch-list

[TexasTowelie]

Last month, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, added the Socialist Equality Party to its official list of “left-wing extremist” organizations subject to state monitoring in its annual “constitutional protection report.” It is a calculated political attack on the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party—SGP).

In previous years, the annual report did not mention the SGP. Now it appears twice—as one of three “left-wing extremist parties” and as an “object of observation,” to be monitored by the secret service.

Monitoring by the secret service means massive restriction on basic democratic rights, and is a precursor to a possible ban. The SGP and its members must assume that they are being watched, their communications are being intercepted and they are being spied on by covert means. They are branded as “enemies of the Constitution” and can expect to face harassment in regard to elections, public appearances, renting rooms or looking for a job.

For example, the RCDS, the student organisation of the governing Christian Democratic parties (Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union), demands that organizations and their members that are subject to monitoring by the secret service be excluded from universities.

Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/17/germ-a17.html

[DetlefK]

1. Germany already has three left-wing parties in parliament.

The Social-Democrats ~20%
The Greens ~10%
The "Left" ~10%