German spy agency brands far-right AfD as ‘extremist’, opens way for closer surveillance
Report calls Alternative for Germany party a racist and anti-Muslim organization stirring up ‘irrational fears and hostility’; move comes amid soaring support for far right in Europe
BERLIN (Reuters) — Germany’s spy agency on Friday classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as “extremist,” enabling it to step up monitoring of the country’s biggest opposition party, which decried the move as a “blow against democracy.”
A 1,100-page report by experts found that the AfD is a racist and anti-Muslim organization, a finding that grants the security services powers to recruit informants and intercept party communications.
“Central to our assessment is the ethnically and ancestrally defined concept of the people that shapes the AfD, which devalues entire segments of the population in Germany and violates their human dignity,” the BfV domestic intelligence agency said in a statement.
“This concept is reflected in the party’s overall anti-migrant and anti-Muslim stance,” it said, adding that the AfD had stirred up “irrational fears and hostility” towards individuals and groups.
The BfV agency needs such a classification to be able to monitor a political party because it is more legally constrained than other European intelligence services, a reflection of Germany’s experience under both Nazi and Communist rule.
The agency was able to act after the AfD last year lost a court case in which it had challenged its previous classification by the BfV as an entity suspected of extremism.
The move is one of several blows to the far-right across Europe in recent months as it seeks to translate surging support into power. Others include a ban on France’s Marine Le Pen contesting the 2027 presidential election after her conviction for embezzlement and the postponement of Romania’s presidential vote after a far-right candidate won the first round.
“VERY SERIOUS. After France and Romania, another theft of Democracy?” wrote Matteo Salvini, deputy Italian prime minister and leader of far-right party the League, on X.
The AfD denounced Friday’s decision as a politically motivated attempt to discredit and criminalize it.
“The AfD will continue to take legal action against these defamatory attacks that endanger democracy,” co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said in a statement.
The decision could put public funding of the AfD at risk, while civil servants who belong to an organization classified as ‘extremist’ face possible dismissal, depending on their role within the entity, according to Germany’s interior ministry.
The stigma could also hamper the ability of the AfD, which currently tops several polls and is Germany’s most successful far-right party since World War Two, to attract members.
Other organizations classified as extremist in Germany are neo-Nazi groups such as the National Democratic Party (NDP), Islamist groups including Islamic State, and far-left ones such as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany.
The BfV decision comes days before conservative leader Friedrich Merz is due to be sworn in as Germany’s new chancellor and amid a heated debate within his party over how to deal with the AfD in the new Bundestag, or lower house of parliament.
The AfD won a record number of seats in Germany’s national election in February, theoretically entitling it to chair several key parliamentary committees.
A prominent Merz ally, Jens Spahn, has called for the AfD to be treated as a regular opposition party in parliamentary procedures, arguing that this prevents it from peddling a ‘victim’ narrative.
However, other established parties as well as many within Spahn’s own conservatives have rejected that approach – and could use Friday’s news as justification for blocking AfD attempts to lead committees.
“Starting today, no one can make excuses anymore: This is not a democratic party, and it is not just another political party,” said Manuela Schwesig, premier of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and senior member of the Social Democrats (SPD), who are about to enter into a coalition with Merz’s conservatives.
“That’s why there must be no cooperation with the AfD,” she said. “The democratic parties should find a consensus on how to continue handling the AfD in the Bundestag.”
The Bundestag could attempt to limit or halt public funding to the AfD – but for that authorities would need evidence that the party is explicitly out to undermine or even overthrow German democracy.
The classification could also reignite efforts to get the AfD banned, but outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz of the SPD warned on Friday against any rush to outlaw the party, calling instead for a careful evaluation.
Created to protest the euro zone bailouts in 2013, the eurosceptic AfD morphed into an anti-migration party after Germany’s decision to take in a large wave of refugees in 2015.
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