https://video.echelon.pl/videos/watch/5e28baf9-21b3-4758-aa1f-1a515499b2bf Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany appears to have shed its delusions about Russia and begun implementing an armed forces expansion program. More recently, just days after an abortive hybrid attack on an airport in Leipzig, Berlin announced a plan to give additional powers to its intelligence services, despite deeply seated fears of government overreach and memories of the Gestapo and the Stasi making the public apprehensive. Are these fears justified? Especially in the light of the growing popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which the mainstream parties have so far managed to successfully isolate on the political stage? “The question is: what happens if the firewall around (the AfD) breaks? And then we have a Germany with massive defense spending and this fully fledged spy agency (...) with all these new capabilities, but with different political masters,” said Stuart Dowell, TVP World’s Political Editor, adding that for Germany’s Central European neighbors, a strong Germany in NATO that they can cooperate with in the fields of defense and intelligence is “for sure a good thing.” But if “in Germany, somehow the AfD comes into power with all that power, military and intelligence power behind them, that’s a very bad thing because the AfD have a neo-imperial attitude,” Dowel said. “They want to accommodate Russia and the countries in the middle – their opinion doesn’t really count. And that’s a bad thing for all those countries in this region.” Join TVP World’s Ayşe Abacı and her guest as they explore Germany’s quest for intelligence sovereignty within NATO, the challenge posed by the AfD’s growing electoral strength, and the collapse of the post-Cold War economic and security model that long underpinned Berlin’s foreign policy. Chapters: 00:00 Why is Germany expanding the powers of its intelligence services? 05:46 What the new intelligence powers would allow – and what they wouldn’t 08:47 Intelligence sovereignty and the risk of the far-right coming to power 11:31 The AfD’s rise and mainstream attempts at maintaining a firewall around the far-right 15:38 The collapse of Germany’s post-Cold War economic and security model 18:16 Implications of a stronger Germany ruled by AfD for the region 🔴 Watch our 24/7 livestream - https://youtube.com/live/9RY46AUtIl4 Bringing you all the latest daily news and updates, TVP World is Poland's first English-language channel where you can find world news as seen from the Polish perspective and the latest news from the CEE region. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. https://tvpworld.com/ https://www.facebook.com/tvpworldcom https://twitter.com/TVPWorld_com https://www.instagram.com/tvp_world/ https://www.threads.net/@tvp_world https://bsky.app/profile/tvpworld.bsky.social https://www.tiktok.com/@tvpworld.com https://t.me/tvp_world #Politics #Germany #Europe Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:38:06 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://video.echelon.pl https://video.echelon.pl/client/assets/images/icons/icon-1500x1500.png https://video.echelon.pl/videos/watch/5e28baf9-21b3-4758-aa1f-1a515499b2bf All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://video.echelon.pl/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.