The Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) political party in Germany sued the country’s domestic intelligence service on May 5 for classifying it as a “right-wing extremist organization.”
The designation subjects the party, which came second in the national elections in February, to greater surveillance from state authorities.
The AfD initiated legal proceedings at an administrative court in the city of Cologne, where the domestic intelligence service has its headquarters.
“We will not allow a politically instrumentalized authority to attempt to distort democratic competition and delegitimize millions of votes,” they said.
“This shameful action undermines the fundamental values of our democracy—and has no place in a constitutional state.”
The move by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution—the formal name of the domestic intelligence service—means its officials can now use informants and other tools such as audio and video recordings to monitor the party’s activities across Germany.
The office, known as the BfV, warned that the party posed a threat to the country’s democratic order, saying the AfD “disregards human dignity,” in particular by what it called “ongoing agitation” against refugees and migrants.
After having regarded the AfD as a suspected extremist movement since 2021, the BfV designated the populist party as “right-wing extremist” on May 2.
BfV said in a statement that AfD’s approach to ethnicity is “not compatible with the free democratic basic order.”
According to BfV’s statement, AfD does not consider German nationals with a migration background from Muslim-origin countries as equal members of the German people.
BfV Vice President Sinan Selen and Vice President Dr. Silke Willems said in a joint statement, “We have come to the conviction that the Alternative for Germany is a definitively right-wing extremist movement.”
The BfV has compiled a 1,100-page experts’ report that it says will not be released to the public.
As anti-illegal-immigration parties have been gaining support across Europe, the AfD has attracted international attention, including support from tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Some top Trump administration officials have criticized the German government’s decision.
In its own social media post responding directly to Rubio, the German Foreign Ministry wrote, “This is democracy,” and called the decision “the result of a thorough & independent investigation” to protect the country’s constitution and the rule of law.
The ministry said it is “independent courts that will have the final say.”
“We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped,” it said.
“Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” Vance said.
The AfD has often faced criticism for its allegedly Russia-friendly positions and its opposition to Germany’s stance toward the war in Ukraine. Berlin is Ukraine’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the United States.
Moscow on May 5 also criticized the extremist classification of the AfD party.
“The European political landscape itself is now full of various restrictive measures against those political forces and individuals whose world view does not fit into the dominant mainstream,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
