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John Osel
On Tuesday, the administrative court in Munich temporarily suspended the observation of AfD Bayern by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. According to this so-called hanging resolution, the state office is initially prohibited from using intelligence resources in the party. The authority is also not allowed to conduct any public relations work with regard to possible anti-constitutional efforts by the party. It is still possible for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to monitor the AfD on the basis of openly accessible sources.
Since September, the state office has been using the measure to clarify the extent to which the party as a whole (and not just the ethnic “wing” and the junior party JA, as before) “are trying to impair or eliminate the core of the Basic Law”. This allows, for example, the tapping of telephones or the use of informants.
The AfD is suing. The interim decision is not a substantive decision as to whether there are actually efforts against the free democratic basic order. In view of the complex situation, this will take some time, the court said. There are thousands of pages of material from the security agency.
Until then, however, the “secret investigation” would interfere with the activities of the party; there is in the consideration “the risk of impairment of equal opportunities” in the future state election campaign. AfD country chief Stephan Protschka told the SZ on Tuesday that the observation was “politically motivated”. He is confident that he will be right in a second step.