“Secured extremist”?
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is apparently preparing a new classification for the AfD
The AfD leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel: The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution also wants to reassess the party’s relationship with Russia.
© -/ / Picture Alliance
Parts of the AfD are already considered by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to be “secured extremist efforts”. Soon the entire party could be considered unconstitutional.
According to research by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ), the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is working on the entire AfD to be classified as a “secure extremist effort”. This emerges from internal emails and notes from the domestic secret service, the newspaper reports.
So far, the AfD has only been listed as a so-called suspected case of right-wing extremism. However, according to “SZ”, a team from the Federal Office has been working for months to prepare a new report on the AfD. The officials only want to wait a little longer out of consideration for the upcoming hearing in March before the Higher Administrative Court in Münster, where the party is suing against their observation.
AfD: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is also examining relations with Russia
The currently valid report from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution on the radicalism of the AfD dates from spring 2021. Since March 2023 at the latest, according to the “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, internal emails from the Federal Office have mentioned an “AfD follow-up report 2023” that is being worked on. A first draft of the structure was circulated in the authority last April. The document lists the well-known criticism of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of racism and authoritarianism in the AfD. Under the heading “Development of the party since March 2022” it also contains a new point: “Relationship with Russia”.
The schedule actually stipulated that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should have already completed its new report. According to information from the “SZ”, a corresponding internal agreement was approved last May by the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang (CDU) and his deputy Sinan Selen. The Federal Office has its own “coordination team” dealing with the AfD. Under Haldenwang, the corresponding department for right-wing extremism has been greatly expanded in recent years.
Court slows down the schedule of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Everything should have been finished in December 2023. Only the judiciary apparently slowed down this schedule. The Münster Higher Administrative Court, which still has to decide on the AfD’s appeal against its “suspected case” status, has repeatedly postponed its hearing in the matter and has now finally set it for March.
According to the “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, internal emails from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution say that the expected “considerations” of the court should be “taken into account as far as possible” in the new AfD report. According to “SZ”, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution still wants to be able to respond if the court has unexpected, new questions. However, if everything remains the same and that the judiciary fundamentally agrees with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution – as it did in the first instance before the Cologne Administrative Court in spring 2022 – nothing would stand in the way of the new report.
AfD has been a “test case” for right-wing extremism since 2019
In response to a request from the “SZ”, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) announced on Sunday: “The BfV generally does not take a position on internal work processes within the authority. This means that no statement has been made as to whether the facts are correct or not.”
When the Federal Office presented a comprehensive new report on the AfD or one of its structures in the past, it was to announce a changed classification. In 2019 it was the AfD’s first classification as a “test case” for right-wing extremism, in 2020 the upgrading of the party’s staunch right wing to “secured extremist endeavors”, in 2021 the upgrading of the entire party to “suspected case”, and in 2023 the upgrading of the Young Alternatives to “secured”. extremist endeavor”.