According to the 2018 report, these are the Communist Platform, Socialist Left, working group AG Cuba Sí, the Anti-capitalist Left, Marxist Forum, and Gera Dialogue/Socialist Dialogue. The Verfassungsschutz also monitors Socialist Alternative and Marx21, which have links with the Anti-Capitalist Left and the Socialist Left, respectively. As evidence of extremism in The Left, the 2007 Verfassungsschutz report cited a June 2007 statement by Lothar Bisky stating that democratic socialism remains the party's goal: "We also still discuss the change of property and power relations ... . We question the system." However, the report commented that in practice the parliamentary party appears as to act as a "reform-oriented" left force. In the past, The Left was under observation by all western German states. In January 2008, Saarland became the first to cease observation. As of 2008, the authorities of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, and Lower Saxony considered The Left in its entirety to be extremist. In the five eastern states, The Left is not under surveillance, as state constitutional authorities see no indication of anti-constitutional tendencies in the bulk of the party; however, the Communist Platform is under observation in three eastern states. Surveillance of party members has been a point of controversy. Bodo Ramelow, a prominent Left politician in Thuringia, was under surveillance until a court ruling in January 2008 that this was illegal. In January 2012, Der Spiegel reported that 27 of the party's 76 Bundestag members were under surveillance, as well as 11 of the party's members of various state parliaments. This included nearly the entirety of the party's Bundestag leadership, federal co-leader Gesine Lötzsch, deputy leader Halina Wawzyniak, and Vice President of the Bundestag Petra Pau. Many of those under surveillance were not associated with acknowledged extremist factions of the party. This surveillance was criticised by the SPD, Greens, and FDP; federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger described it as "intolerable". In October 2013, the Federal Constitutional Court deemed the surveillance of Bundestag members unconstitutional except in extraordinary circumstances, such as if the member was abusing their office to undermine the constitutional order, or otherwise actively fighting against it. Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière subsequently announced that none of The Left's Bundestag members would be surveilled, even those affiliated with the factions considered extremist by the Verfassungsschutz. Extremism and populism Both media and political scientists have discussed whether The Left should be considered extremist in nature.