The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution can classify the AfD and its youth organization Junge Alternativer (JA) as suspected right-wing extremist cases. The North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Münster came to this judgment. The court announced its verdict this Monday, confirming an earlier ruling by the Cologne Administrative Court. This means that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution can continue to monitor the party using intelligence means.
The AfD and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had argued in court for weeks. The question was whether the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), based in Cologne, rightly classified the party and its youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) as suspected right-wing extremist cases. It was also about classifying the so-called wing of the AfD as a suspected case and as a “certain extremist effort”. In the lower instance, the judges at the Cologne Administrative Court confirmed the 2022 assessment.
The next step after the suspected case is the determination that the object is a confirmed extremist effort. In the case of the JA, the Federal Office has already declared this and the Cologne Administrative Court also confirmed this in February 2024. However, this question was not yet addressed before the OVG.
The party’s lawyers had already announced in advance that they would move to the next instance. In a possible appeal, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig would examine the OVG’s decision for legal errors. However, since the court in Münster is the final authority on facts, the AfD could no longer submit any new applications for evidence before the Federal Administrative Court. The “Not a Meter to the Nazis” alliance has announced a vigil near the OVG for Monday.