Germany\u2019s domestic intelligence agency on Friday classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as an extremist entity that threatens democracy, a move enabling it to better monitor the party that came second in February\u2019s federal election. <\/p>\n
The BfV agency\u2019s finding, based on a 1,100-page expert report, that the AfD is racist and anti-Muslim allows the authorities to increase surveillance of the party, including by recruiting confidential informants and intercepting communications. <\/p>\n
The stigma could also hamper the party\u2019s ability to attract members, while public funding could be at risk. <\/p>\n
The AfD, which currently tops several opinion polls, condemned the decision, while political analysts said it risked further fueling support for the party. <\/p>\n
\u201cCentral to our assessment is the ethnically and ancestrally defined concept of the people that shapes the AfD, which devalues entire segments of the population in Germany and violates their human dignity,\u201d the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis concept is reflected in the party\u2019s overall anti-migrant and anti-Muslim stance.\u201d <\/p>\n
The AfD has \u201cdefamed and vilified\u201d individuals and groups, stirring up \u201cirrational fears and hostility toward them,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n
In the party\u2019s first response to the report, the leader of a regional parliamentary group, Anton Baron, said: \u201cIt is sad to see the state of democracy in our country when the established parties now resort to the most politically questionable means to act against the strongest opposition party.\u201d <\/p>\n
The intelligence decision comes days before conservative leader Friedrich Merz is due to be sworn in as Germany\u2019s new chancellor and amid a heated debate within his party over how to deal with the AfD in the new parliament. <\/p>\n
The party won a record number of seats, theoretically entitling it to chair several key parliamentary committees. <\/p>\n
A prominent Merz ally, Jens Spahn, has called for treating the AfD as a regular opposition party in parliamentary procedures, arguing that this approach prevents the party from adopting a \u2018victim\u2019 narrative. <\/p>\n
However, other established parties as well as many within Spahn\u2019s own conservatives have rejected that approach – and could use Friday\u2019s news as justification for blocking AfD attempts to lead key committees. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is tension between a party\u2019s claim to chair positions based on its size and the freedom of conscience of the members of parliament,\u201d said political scientist Wolfgang Schroeder at Kassel University. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow, these members can argue that AfD representatives do not meet the necessary standards. The signs are mounting that the AfD is not a normal party, and as a result, it will continue to be marginalized.\u201d <\/p>\n
The classification could reignite attempts to get the AfD banned, but Germany\u2019s outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats will be the junior partner in Merz\u2019s new coalition, advised against rushing to outlaw the AfD. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am against a quick shot, we have to evaluate the classification carefully,\u201d he said on Friday at a church convention in the northern city of Hanover. <\/p>\n
The German parliament could also attempt to limit or halt public funding to the AfD – but for that authorities would need evidence that the party is explicitly out to undermine or even overthrow German democracy. <\/p>\n
Certain factions of the AfD such as its youth wing had already been classified as extremist, while the party at large was classified as a suspected extremist case in 2021. <\/p>\n
Created to protest the euro zone bailouts in 2013, the euroskeptic AfD morphed into an anti-migration party after Germany\u2019s decision to take in a large wave of refugees in 2015. <\/p>\n
That the BfV agency needs a certain classification to be able to monitor a political party reflects the fact it is more legally restrained than other European intelligence services, in reaction to the country\u2019s experience under both Nazi and Communist rule. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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