German Spy Agency Pauses ‘Extremist' AfD Classification
On May 8, the
After having regarded the AfD as a suspected extremist movement since 2021, the country's domestic intelligence service, Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, known as the
Reacting to the pause, AfD joint leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel posted a statement on social media platform
'This is an important first step toward actually exonerating us and thus countering the accusation of right-wing extremism.'
Such a designation subjects the party, which came second in the national elections in February, to greater surveillance from state authorities, meaning its officials can use informants and other tools such as audio and video recordings to monitor the party's activities across Germany.
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It had compiled a 1,100-page experts' report that it says will not be released to the public.
It said that AfD's approach to ethnicity is 'not compatible with the free democratic basic order' and that the party does not consider German nationals with a migration background from Muslim-origin countries as equal members of the German people.
At the time, AfD Deputy Federal Spokesman Stephan Brandner told The Epoch Times that the classification was 'absurd.'
Brandner said that this has 'nothing to do with law and order, and is a purely political in the fight of the cartel parties against the AfD.'
The party also
On
Among them was Alexander Dobrindt, a CSU politician from the Bavarian sister party of Merz's CDU, who took office as federal minister of the interior, meaning the BfV now falls under his ministry's authority
Prior to that, SDP politician Nancy Faeser had ministerial oversight and, among her objectives, had
This included plans 'to safeguard the independence of the Federal Constitutional Court more strongly against the influence of anti-democratic forces.'
'Those who ridicule the government must be met with a strong government in return,' she said. 'When it comes to right-wing extremists, we must leave no stone unturned.'
Merz is in a coalition with the SDP, which signaled that it wanted to ban the party.
In a
'The whole thing must now continue in the necessary care, resilient and continuous without errors. It is clear to me that the ban must come,' she added.
On May 4, Dobrindt said it was unlikely the AfD party would be banned.
'I'm sceptical, because the aggressive, combative nature of the party against our democracy must be a defining characteristic. The Constitutional Court was right to set high hurdles for banning a party,' Dobrindt said.
He added that he was 'convinced that the AfD does not need to be banned, it needs to be governed away, and we need to talk about the issues that have made the AfD so big.'
Guy Birchall and Reuters contributed to this report.
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