Germany’s domestic intelligence agency on Tuesday reported an increase in the number of people with right-wing extremist views, linking the surge mainly to the growing membership of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

According to the annual report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the domestic secret service estimated last year that 58,700 people fell into the category of “potential far-right extremists”—8,450 more than the previous year.

This increase is mainly linked to the growth in membership of the AfD, which is currently being monitored by the BfV as a suspected extremist group.

The AfD announced in October that it now had 70,000 members, and the BfV estimated that about 28,000 of these are right-wing extremists.

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