The extreme right alternative for Germany (AFD) filed a complaint against the agency of the country responsible for protecting the Constitution after having appointed the party as “right -wing” last Friday.
Daniel Tapp, spokesperson for the AFD co-leader, Alice Weidel, told the news agency that a letter describing it had been sent to the administrative court responsible for Cologne.
Friday, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV) appointed AFD as a right -wing extremist organization.
He concluded “after an intensive examination” over a period of three years that the racist and anti-Muslim positions put forward by the party were incompatible with “the free democratic order” stated in the constitution of the country.
His positions on individuals with migrant history were based on an “understanding of ethnic origin” of German identity.
In addition, the party's objectives “exclude certain population groups from the same participation in society, to subject them to an unconstitutional unequal treatment and therefore attribute to them a legally devalued status,” said the BFV.
Immediately after the decision, AFD described this as a “blow for German democracy” and argued that the BFV violated the constitution of the country.
The party co-leaders, Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, said that AFD “would exhaust all legal means to defend the free democratic basis”.
Opponents previously called for AFD's ban on the grounds that it seeks to undermine democratic values. Domestic intelligence has already classified the party factions, including all its wing for young people, as an extremist.
The classification of the whole party has revived a debate on the question of whether it should be prohibited, although several politicians, including the outgoing social chancellor Olaf Scholz, warned against the making of a “hasty decision”.
Shortly before the classification, other political parties discussed the extent to which AFD, the second most strong part of the Parliament with 152 seats, should be integrated into parliamentary decision -making.
The deputy chief of the Christian Democratic Christian Union in Center-Direct (CDU), Jens Spahn, had previously asked that AFD be treated as “any other opposition party”.
In the light of the BFV decision, Spahn said that his party had taken the classification “seriously”.
The CDU, alongside the Social Democrats (SPD) which should train on Tuesday a new coalition government, “was coordinated closely on how to manage AFD in parliamentary procedures,” added Spahn.
