SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Sarah Marsh and Friederike Heine
Berlin: Germany’s spy agency has 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”.
An 1100-page experts’ report found the AfD to be a racist and anti-Muslim organisation, a designation that allows the security services to recruit informants and intercept party communications and revived calls for the party’s ban.
Alice Weidel at the AfD party headquarters in Berlin after elections in February.Credit: AP
“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 on Friday, Berlin time.
“This concept is reflected in the party’s overall anti-migrant and anti-Muslim stance,” it said, accusing the AfD of stirring up “irrational fears and hostility”.
The BfV 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.
Other organisations 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 AfD denounced its designation as a politically motivated attempt to discredit and criminalise 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.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Germany should reverse course on branding the AfD as extremist, calling it “tyranny in disguise”.
Billionaire Elon Musk – who threw his support behind the party ahead of February elections – warned against banning it, saying it would be “an extreme attack on democracy”.
In February, US Vice President J.D. Vance stunned attendees at a security conference in Munich where he said the biggest threat to Europe was not from Russia or China, but what he called “the enemy within”, including the sidelining of political parties considered extremist.
In what was seen as an extraordinary intervention into domestic politics, Vance singled out his German hosts. He told them to drop their objections to working with a party that has often revelled in banned Nazi slogans. While he did not mention the AfD by name, he made a direct reference to the long-standing agreement – which he called “firewalls” – by mainstream German politicians to freeze out the group.
“The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” Vance posted on Twitter after the news broke. “The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt – not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment.”
The branding follows other setbacks the far-right across Europe has suffered in recent months as it seeks to translate surging support into power. They include a ban on France’s Marine Le Pen contesting the 2027 presidential election after her embezzlement conviction, and the postponement of Romania’s presidential vote after a far-right candidate won the first round.
A woman wearing an AfD-themed shirt at a May Day even in Germany this week.Credit: Getty Images
“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.
German parliament could now attempt to limit or halt public funding for the AfD – but for that authorities would need evidence that the party is explicitly out to undermine or even overthrow German democracy.
Meanwhile, civil servants who belong to an organisation classified as “extremist” face possible dismissal, depending on their role within the entity, according to Germany’s interior ministry.
The stigma could also make it harder for the AfD, which currently tops several polls and is Germany’s most successful far-right party since World War II, to attract members.
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 the national election in February, coming in second behind Merz’s conservatives, which in theory entitled it to chair several key parliamentary committees. The designation could be used justify blocking AfD attempts to lead committees.
“Starting today, no one can make excuses any more: This is not a democratic party,” said Manuela Schwesig, a senior member of the Social Democrats (SPD), who are about to form a government with the conservatives.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil said authorities should review whether to outlaw the AfD. But the party’s outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, called for a careful evaluation and warned against rushing to ban it.
Reuters
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