Yes, but our current Minister of Economic Affairs is all out to kill it again.

I hope you are aware what happened with the NSU and how closely the BfV was tied to them, like paid informants having direct contact with the terrorists even after police searched for them or officers of the BfV being at the side of one of their attacks and declaring they hadn’t seen anything.
Or how western Neo Nazis used money from the BfV to establish the NPD in the east in the 90s.
Or the ties of the BfV to the Wehrsportgruppen (Neo Nazi terrorist groups who committed the worst terror attack in German history after the war in 1980 source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest_bombing)
Or how the whole organization was founded and shaped by full hardened Nazis who got their experience by spying for Nazi Germany (and luckily sucking at that).
Every of these points alone is ground for massive suspicion for what the goals of the BfV really are. Combined there is no other conclusion then that at least parts of the BfV have guided, protected and used fascists throughout all of Germany’s post war history.

“right-wing populist” this fucking white washing. NSDAP 2.0 is more fitting.
And for the intelligence agency (Verfassungsschutz), they have to do a lot of good work to earn any amount of trust when it comes to anti-fascist work. There main objective for the last 40 years (I’m not sure, new stuff keeps getting out and old stuff gets forgotten) seemed to be to protect and support Neo Nazi groups.

You are aware that it is not the 19th century anymore? Political groups and ideologies change and are different through time and between countries.