According to a decision by the Cologne administrative court, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution may classify the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist. A corresponding lawsuit by the AfD will be dismissed, the court said on Tuesday. This allows the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to monitor the party accordingly with intelligence resources. The AfD had filed a complaint against this decision by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution last year.
During the oral hearing, the court dealt with several lawsuits filed by the AfD against the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is based in Cologne. The procedure took place in the Cologne exhibition center to enable appropriate public participation in the procedure despite the corona pandemic. AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla also came to Cologne for the hearing. The process goes back to lawsuits filed by the AfD last year.
At the beginning of 2021 it became known that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution wanted to classify the AfD, which has been represented in the Bundestag since 2017, as a so-called suspected case due to right-wing extremist activities. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution had previously compiled extensive files on the party and some of its leading members. According to this classification, the use of intelligence resources to monitor the AfD would be permissible.
The AfD immediately filed a lawsuit against it and, in an urgent application, also obtained that the domestic secret service was not allowed to communicate its assessments of the AfD for the time being. The party complained at the time that it would suffer a disadvantage in the Bundestag elections if the assessments of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution became known. In the spring of last year, the administrative court initially decided that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was not allowed to classify the AfD as a suspected case until a decision had been made in the proceedings.
The consequences for the AfD are great
The decision is of great importance for the AfD because it has serious consequences for the party and its members. Classification as a suspected case means that the party can be observed with the help of intelligence services, and that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution can also recruit and use informants in their ranks to collect information about the party. The party leadership also fears an exodus, especially of civil servants from their ranks, because they might have to reckon with professional consequences if the decision was negative for the AfD.
The party firmly contradicted the assessment of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and submitted extensive pleadings. The party is not extremist, said its chairman Tino Chrupalla. The AfD pointed out, among other things, that the so-called “wing”, which was classified as right-wing extremist and founded by the Thuringian AfD politician Björn Höcke, has now been dissolved.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution argued that although the “wing” had actually been formally dissolved, its members continued to belong to the AfD and shaped the party. Since March 2020, the formally dissolved network around the Thuringian AfD state chief Höcke has been observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a right-wing extremist effort.
The protection of the constitution also argued with statements by former AfD party leader Jörg Meuthen. Meuthen’s exit from the party shows that the so-called wing within the party is becoming more and more popular. The long-standing chairman justified his resignation a few weeks ago by saying that the AfD had moved further and further to the right. The former chairman noted that many party members were characterized by contempt for those who thought differently.
The representatives of the AfD countered that the Thuringian AfD boss and wing founder Björn Höcke received a lot of media attention, but he only led a single state association. Höcke never aspired to leadership of the party as a whole – he also knows that he would not have a majority behind him, according to AfD leader Chrupalla.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution also saw anti-constitutional efforts in the party as a whole, independently of the right wing of the AfD. Again and again, so the argument goes, that the AfD has an understanding of the people that is incompatible with the Basic Law.
Before the administrative court in Cologne, there should be a total of four lawsuits by the AfD. Among other things, she wanted to defend herself against the classification of her youth organization “Junge Alternative” as a suspected case. This is the decision of the first instance.