Germany’s far-right political party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), has been officially classified as an extremist organization by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the country’s domestic intelligence agency. This designation comes in the wake of the party’s significant performance in recent elections, where it achieved its highest vote share in history during February’s federal parliamentary elections.
The classification marks a key watershed moment for the AfD. As frustration continues to grow over the long process of creating a new government, this reform has been drawing wide support. The party has actually looked neck-and-neck or even ahead in a number of these opinion polls during this time. We’ve asked the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to raise serious concerns. What concerns them is the radicalization of the party’s ideology and organizational practices.
For the first time, this released 1,100-page expert report makes clear that the AfD discriminates against entire population groups. It demonstrates that they don’t consider German citizens of immigrant origin from mainly Muslim countries as full-fledged members of society. According to outgoing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, “The AfD represents an ethnic concept that discriminates against entire population groups and treats citizens with a history of migration as second-class Germans.”
The intelligence agency’s formal classification of the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist organization” significantly lowers the threshold for monitoring the party through intelligence means. Until now, most of these regional associations of the AfD were classified as extremist. At the same time, the national party was stuck at the lower tier of “suspected.”
The intelligence agency’s press release promised a close look at a host of inflammatory remarks and public stances taken by top AfD leaders. This ambitious review unfolded over almost three years. The report found that the party’s policies systematically dehumanize wider swathes of the population and disregard their rights. The results further illustrate that the AfD aims to disenfranchise select population groups from achieving their full human potential. This decision absolutely puts these groups in a legally second-class status.
“The ethnicity- and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates within the party is not compatible with the free democratic order.” – Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Faeser stressed that the agency did the evaluation free of political pressure. He was even more emphatic in defending the overall integrity of their findings. The designation will trigger a new wave of debate over banning the AfD. This has caused acute concern about its power over the fabric of German democracy.
Alongside this success at the ballot box, a broader wave of criticism over the AfD’s actions has erupted. The intelligence agency’s report sounded the alarm on a growing threat. It called the “ethic-based” policy discriminatory against many segments of the population and a violation of their human dignity. The agency’s press release went on to explain in a little more detail just how these policies are intended to erode democratic principles and social cohesion.
They chose to hold off on releasing this dangerous classification until after elections were concluded. This decision was made to avoid any appearance of meddling with the electoral processes, demonstrating that they were aware of the politically volatile situation. Socially, Germany is trying to come to terms with these changes. Questions regarding the party’s fate and future role in German politics dominate public debate.