Cologne University students have donated at least €8,500 from their student fees towards a far-left extremist Antifa group which is under observation by the German security services.
The Cologne General Students’ Committee (AStA) has donated thousands of euros since at least 2010 to the Antifa AK extremist group, according to budget documents. Following the revelation, the local Green University group expressed their full support for Antifa.
“Antifa AK is the student body, and the student body is Antifa!” the Green group wrote on Facebook. It added that Antifa AK was “a working group of the student body of the University of Cologne and thus an integral part of it”, Die Welt reports.
Antifa Preparing Violent Attacks on Police and Political Opponents, Say German Authorities https://t.co/Cczu6GpHOj
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 9, 2020
According to the newspaper, the Antifa AK group is on a list of extremist groups observed by the Federal Office for the Protection fo the Constitution (BfV). Germany’s domestic intelligence agency described it as an organisation that “pursues anti-constitutional goals” and “therefore it is an extremist group”.
Students at the University of Cologne pay semester fees of €28o, €205 of which goes to the AStA which is linked to the student government.
The youth wing of the Social Democrats, the Jusos, and the Greens both dominate the student government and have always voted in favour of giving Antifa student cash. The opposition, the Christian Democrat-affiliated RCDS and the Liberal University Group, has voted against the spending but is a minority in the student government.
German security services are currently monitoring at least 47 Antifa extremist groups, with the BfV stating that there are far more extremist leftist groups not mentioned in official reports.
Germany Warns Far-Left Antifa Infiltrating Climate Movement https://t.co/AdycmIU9MQ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 3, 2020
Earlier this month, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the BfV claimed that Antifa members were plotting attacks on police officers, populist politicians, and other political enemies. The offices noted that some members had trained with Kurdish militia in northern Syria.
In June, the BfV warned that growing Antifa violence could even result in targetted assassinations, as groups within the far-left scene become more extreme.
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