Friday, the Federal Office of Germany for the protection of the Constitution designated the extreme right alternative for Germany (AFD) as an extremist right -wing organization which constitutes a threat to democracy and constitutional order.
The office, also known as BVF, cited AFD's xenophobic positions on ethnicity as a reason for the decision, declaring that the party was discriminatory towards the non -ethnic Germans.
According to the press release published on Friday, office experts examined whether AFD's actions “correspond to the central basic principles of the German Constitution” over a period of three years.
The office also examined the declarations shared by AFD representatives, their broader behavior, as well as their links with the actors and extremist groups on the right.
This has led the organization to determine that AFD “aims to exclude certain population groups from the same participation in society, to subject them to unconstitutional unequal treatment and therefore to attribute a legally devalued status to them”.
He added that the far -right party does not consider people who “a migration history of countries influenced by Muslims as equivalent members of the German people defined ethnically”.
Meanwhile, AFD co -presidents, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, published a joint statement in which they said that the decision was “politically motivated”, reminding their supporters that the classification had not yet been “legally finalized”.
Weidel and Chrupalla said that the party would continue to “defend itself legally”, against what it said is “defamation”.
In turn, German Interior Minister Nancy FaeSer said in a press release that the classification was “clear and unambiguous” and results from a “complete and neutral audit” of 1,100 pages “without political influence.
In the German elections in February, AFD arrived second with 20.8% of the votes, after the CDU of the center-right and before the center left of the center, the two parties that will form the new government.
The same decision was already in place for certain party sections, including its youth wing.
However, the designation does not constitute a ban on the party, which can only take place by the request of the two chambers of the Parliament or the federal government through the Federal Constitutional Court.
Although the German Parliament can request that the whole party be dissolved, it is very unlikely that it will happen.
The outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz has since called for caution concerning a possible AFD ban, declaring: “I am against a knee. We must carefully assess the classification.”
