The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the AfD youth organization “Young Alternative Thuringia” (JA) as definitely right-wing extremist. In the opinion of the authority, the positions represented by JA Thuringia are incompatible with the Basic Law and the state constitution. The classification specifically means that all means and methods can be used in accordance with the Constitutional Protection Act. This also includes so-called G10 measures, which are based on the corresponding paragraph in the Constitutional Protection Act. With this paragraph it is possible for the secret service to recruit informants in the Thuringia correctional institution as intelligence sources. Agents can also tap members’ phones.
“Not politically moderate”
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution states that the Thuringian youth organization has not moderated politically since the Office for the Protection of the Constitution began monitoring it as a suspected right-wing extremist case in 2021. The opposite is the case: more moderate people have been “marginalized and voted out”, especially among top personnel. The Thuringian youth organization currently regularly refers to an ethnically homogeneous German nation and a German community of descent. Such an idea formulates biological assumptions about who can and cannot be German and is in contradiction to the Basic Law. Groups that the youth organization denies “Germanness” are generally devalued as criminals with similarly racist assumptions.
AfD spokesman: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in “open battle”
Thuringia’s AfD spokesman Torben Braga told MDR THÜRINGEN in an initial reaction that he was not surprised about the new classification. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is in an “open fight against the AfD” and is repeatedly trying to defame it and its organizations.
The President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, explained that the JA was supporting the Thuringian AfD in radicalising young people with the promise of community and togetherness. It had completely followed the line of AfD state leader Björn Höcke. The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution had already described the party’s state association as “proven right-wing extremist aspirations” classified.