The German interior minister warns of possible Russian interference in the EP elections

“We must ensure that hacker attacks on election institutions do not happen,” the minister emphasized.

Fezer draws attention to the wider use of artificial intelligence to protect against disinformation campaigns, and argued against budget cuts for 2025.

The minister warned of the growing dangers posed by Russia’s hybrid war of traditional and cyber espionage and accused the Kremlin of deliberately encouraging the movement of refugees to Western Europe to destabilize them.

“In fact, we are experiencing a new dimension of the threat of Russian aggression,” Fezer stated in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. “But espionage is at least as active,” she added.

The minister also accused the eurosceptic party “Alternative Germany” (AfD) of having close relations with the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, which AfD co-chair Alice Videle denied in an interview with the DPA news agency.

“The AfD worships Putin and despises modern Germany,” Feser said, arguing that the AfD has transformed from Eurosceptics to a political party opposed to the German constitution. The minister did not rule out the possibility of banning the AfD, which was recently debated in Germany.

“If the party wants to aggressively undermine the democratic order, the Federal Constitutional Court can prohibit it. If the radicalization of the AfD continues, such a possibility is provided for in our constitution,” said the minister.