Munich Administrative Court
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution may continue to monitor Bayern-AfD for the time being
For the time being, under the surveillance of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution: the AfD in Bavaria. photo
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
In September, the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior announced that the AfD is now also being monitored as a whole party by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Bavaria. The party then went to court.
The Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution may continue to monitor the state AfD for the time being. The administrative court in Munich rejected the party’s corresponding applications on Monday. Accordingly, the state association may be observed on the basis of openly accessible information until a decision is made in the main proceedings. It is not yet possible to say when this success will be achieved.
According to statements by AfD members, “there are actual indications of anti-constitutional efforts, namely to invalidate the human dignity of Muslims and the principle of democracy,” the court said. “The statements showed continued agitation against the institutions and representatives of the state and against the democratic parties.” Even if the statements came from only some of the members and it is not clear whether they reflect the opinion of the entire party, they are “in any case an expression of an internal party dispute”.
For the time being, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has not been allowed to use intelligence tools to monitor the Bayern-AfD since a court decision in October 2022. The court did not make a decision on its admissibility on Monday. One does not currently assume that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution will use such means to monitor the AfD, said a court spokesman. Therefore, the national association could not defend itself against it.
The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior announced in September that the AfD is now also being observed in Bavaria as a whole party by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “This serves to clarify the extent to which there are efforts in the AfD as a whole party that are trying to impair or eliminate the core of the Basic Law,” the statement said. Members of the state parliament would not be observed.