Germany’s domestic intelligence agency labeled the country’s popular right-wing party as an “extremist” organization in a statement released Friday, opening the door for the government to ramp up efforts to surveil the right, according to multiple reports.
The Verfassungschutz, or Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), claimed in the statement that Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) is a right-wing extremist party, paving the way for the government to double down on its surveillance of the organization’s activities, according to The New York Times. AfD came in second place in the February federal elections as its platform proved popular among voters tired of runaway immigration and ceding sovereignty to the European Union.
“The ethnicity and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order,” the BfV said in the statement, according to a BBC translation.
BfV’s designation has drawn a sharp response from AfD, which characterized the move as being purely politically driven.
“This decision by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is complete nonsense in terms of substance, has nothing to do with law and justice, and is purely political in the fight between the cartel parties against the AfD,” Stephan Brandner, an AfD leader, said regarding the designation, according to the NYT.
AfD’s popularity among the electorate is on par with Germany’s ruling party, polling equal to the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at 24%, according to an INSA institute survey in April. The right-wing party currently holds 152 seats in the German Bundestag,
Alice Weidel/Tino Chrupalla: “Entscheidung des Verfassungsschutzes ist ein schwerer Schlag gegen die bundesdeutsche Demokratie!”
Zu der Erklärung des Bundesamtes für Verfassungsschutz teilen die AfD-Bundessprecher Alice Weidel und Tino Chrupalla mit:
„Die heutige Entscheidung… pic.twitter.com/91CHFY3NID
— AfD (@AfD) May 2, 2025
Germany previously classified the party as a “suspected case of right-wing extremism” in 2022, which led to the initial surveillance of the party. Moreover, the German government is proposing creating a new media oversight body to monitor “information manipulation,” with the plan reportedly saying the dissemination of “false factual claims is not covered by freedom of expression.”
Germany has already cracked down on so-called “hate speech,” even raiding homes of suspects deemed to have posted hateful content online. For example, German journalist David Bendels was handed a seven-month suspended jail sentence for posting a satirical image of German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wearing a sign reading, “I hate freedom of speech.”
Vice President JD Vance criticized Europe’s pervasive censorship laws during the Munich Security Conference in February, while also voicing support for AfD during his visit.
In order to box out AfD from the ruling government, the CDU made an alliance with two left-leaning parties, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democratic Party (SDP). CDU leader and German Chancellor Frederich Merz vowed to not work with AfD despite ideological similarities between the two parties compared to their left-wing counterparts.
The BfV and AfD did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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