German intelligence services will continue to investigate the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) until after February’s elections, security sources told dpa on Wednesday, as a regional court dealt a new blow to the party.
The party – which is currently second in national polls – has been classified by security services as a suspected right-wing extremist group, allowing officers to monitor its activities, including through the use of surveillance and informants.
In October, the president of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said the body would make a decision before the end of the year on whether to reevaluate the party’s status.
However, it is expected that the assessment by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) will now be postponed after Germany’s main political parties agreed on Tuesday on a timetable to bring forward next year’s parliamentary elections.
The agency must assess whether the party remains a suspected threat to the constitutional order.
Former BfV president Thomas Haldenwang said in October that he considered it “extremely unlikely” that the agency would cease operations.
The AfD has also filed a legal appeal against the classification, but was dealt a major blow in May when a regional court upheld the intelligence service’s assessment, allowing it to continue investigating the party. The legal dispute is still ongoing.
Court: The state’s AfD chapter may remain under investigation
The AfD has seen a resurgence in recent polls and performed strongly in eastern Germany’s state elections in September.
The party even finished top in Thuringia, becoming the first far-right party to do so in German state elections since the Nazi era.
The party’s signature theme is a hardline anti-immigration stance, and it has benefited from increased concern among many German voters about the rising number of people seeking asylum in the country.
But the AfD remains an outcast on the national political scene, with mainstream parties continuing to reject cooperation with the party.
It has also repeatedly attracted the attention of intelligence agencies for its extremist views.
In a new setback for the AfD, Baden-Württemberg’s administrative court on Wednesday rejected a complaint against the classification of the party’s branch in the southwestern state as a suspected right-wing extremist organization.
The Baden-Württemberg Office for the Protection of the Constitution first made the assessment in July 2022, allowing its officers to monitor the AfD’s activities in the state, including through surveillance and informants.
The court in Mannheim said its ruling on Wednesday – an affirmation of an earlier decision by a lower court – was based on indications of discrimination within the party against German citizens with a migrant background and of defamation of Muslims in Germany.
The decision cannot be appealed.
The leader of the AfD in the state described the court’s ruling as “simply absurd.”
Markus Frohnmaier, born in Romania, told dpa: “The AfD is so inclusive that it has chosen a party leader with Romanian roots.”
“The AfD does not want Germans with and without a migrant background to be treated unequally under the law,” he added.
