Status: 12/21/2022 10:24 am
According to Haldenwang, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD is drifting further to the right. There is hardly any resistance to extremist currents in the party. He also sees dangers from right-wing extremist settlers and “Reich citizens”.
From the point of view of the protection of the constitution, the AfD is now steering almost unchecked towards the far right. “We hardly notice any more forces that are trying to oust the extremist tendencies from the party,” said the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, in an interview with the dpa news agency. At the same time, it can be observed “that right-wing extremists like Björn Höcke have had a strong influence on the party.”
Differences between the levels of the party
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist in March 2021 – an assessment that was confirmed by the Cologne Administrative Court in the first instance.
The party continues to defend itself against the assessment. The proceedings at the Higher Administrative Court in Münster are still ongoing. “Without making a prognosis regarding our next test, a certain trend is currently discernible: it’s going further to the right,” said the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, however, observed differences between the various levels of the party. At the federal level, one tends to avoid clear right-wing extremist statements, “but the deeper one looks into the party structures, the more visible the xenophobic, anti-Semitic, nationalistic and human dignity-violating statements become.”
Rejection of democracy unites “Reich citizens”
With a view to the most recent arrests in the “Reichsbürger” scene, the head of the domestic secret service explained that it was worrying how quickly this association had managed to network nationwide.
Haldenwang said he expected other people to be identified who could be attributed to the group. It would be an exaggeration to speak of the proverbial tip of the iceberg here. However, the investigation suggested that there were other parties involved.
The “heterogeneous mixed scene” that can be observed here includes so-called Reichsbürger and self-governors, in some cases also right-wing extremists, active or former AfD members, supporters of various conspiracy narratives and people who belong to the new phenomenon area “delegitimization of the constitutional protection relevant to the constitutional protection”. State” are to be attributed. “The unifying force of the actors is the rejection and overcoming of the system of the Federal Republic of Germany,” stated Haldenwang.
Right-wing extremist settlements in view
The protection of the constitution also directs its attention to settlement efforts by right-wing extremists who are trying to “create a self-sufficient retreat for life among like-minded people” and to “connect their own ideological ideas”. The purchase of corresponding properties can be observed in some eastern German states and in northern Germany.
Some of these collectives are characterized by diffusely esoteric ideas, but there are also “clear right-wing extremist ideologies” behind them. “Action-oriented right-wing extremists or actors of the New Right” also tried to capture individual towns or regions. “Racist or anti-Semitic narratives” can often be identified.