Germany’s domestic intelligence service has designated the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the biggest opposition party, as a “confirmed rightwing extremist” force.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) previously considered the anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin party a “suspected” threat to Germany’s democratic order, with three of its regional chapters in eastern states and its youth wing classed as confirmed extremist.
The BfV said that it had concluded that racist and anti-Muslim stances advanced by the AfD, based on an “ethnic-ancestry-based understanding” of German identity, were “incompatible with the free democratic basic order” set out in the country’s constitution.
It added that the party “aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society, to subject them to unconstitutional unequal treatment and thus to assign them a legally devalued status.”
The decision will clear the way for tougher measures to monitor the party for suspected illegal activity, including tapping telephone communications, observing its meetings and recruiting secret informants.
The BfV based its decision on a 1,100-page report that was presented to the interior ministry this week.
The report outlined the party’s efforts to erode democracy, including inciting hostility toward asylum seekers and migrants and viewing German citizens “with a background of migration from predominantly Muslim countries” as inferior.
Political analysts and security authorities say the AfD, which was founded 12 years ago by a group of Eurosceptic professors, has become more radicalised with each change in leadership, and particularly when the country faced an influx of refugees in 2015-16.
The AfD came second in the February general election with just over 20% of the vote.
The AfD is led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, who have called for the “remigration” of people they deemed to be “poorly integrated”, including German citizens with roots abroad.
The party has faced growing calls from opponents for it to be outlawed on the grounds that it seeks to undermine democratic values, including protection of minority rights.
Such a ban can be sought by either house of parliament – the Bundestag or the Bundesrat – or by the government itself.
The German parliament may use the BfV decision to justify an attempt to cut or block public funding for the party.
However, Olaf Scholz, the outgoing Social Democrat Chancellor, warned against rushing to outlaw the AfD. “I am against a quick shot, we have to evaluate the classification carefully,” he said at a church convention in the northern city of Hanover.
Some opponents of a ban say it could backfire and help promote a victim narrative within the party.
AfD To Challenge Extremist Classification
The Co-leaders of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) said that they would take legal action against the domestic intelligence agency’s classification of the party as extremist.
In a joint statement, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla described the decision as “politically motivated” and a “severe blow to German democracy.”
Weidel and Chrupalla stressed that the AfD is being “publicly discredited and criminalised shortly before change of government.”
The intelligence decision comes days before conservative leader Friedrich Merz is due to be sworn in as Germany’s new Chancellor and amid a heated debate within his party over how to deal with the AfD in the new parliament.
They added that the party “will continue to defend itself legally against these defamatory statements that endanger democracy.”
Meanwhile, Benjamin Winkler, of the anti-extremist Amadeu Antonio Foundation, welcomed the BfV’s decision.
He blamed the AfD for increasing the influence of radical groups while stoking racist and anti-migrant sentiment in the wider population. “We see it in the large number of reports about attacks, and in police data about the record number of rightwing extremist crimes in Germany,” he told a news channel.
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