The verdict is in

AfD suspected of being right-wing extremist

Following a ruling by the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Administrative Court, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has rightly classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist organization.

(Bild: AFP)

The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution may continue to classify the AfD as a suspected case following a ruling by the Münster Higher Administrative Court (OVG). 

On Monday, the court rejected an appeal by the AfD against a ruling by the lower court in Cologne.

The court explained in its ruling that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had ensured proportionality in its measures. The ruling is not yet legally binding.

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The OVG did not allow an appeal. However, the AfD can lodge an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.

"Inadmissible discrimination"
The powers of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution are "by no means limitless", but a defensive democracy must not be a "toothless tiger", emphasized Gerald Buck, presiding judge of the 5th Senate, in the reasons for the decision. The Senate is convinced that there is a well-founded suspicion "that it corresponds to the political objectives of at least a significant part of the AfD to only grant German citizens with a migration background a legally devalued status". According to the Basic Law, this is "inadmissible discrimination".

The procedure is compatible with the Basic Law, European law and international law.

Background

The AfD had appealed against a ruling by the Cologne Administrative Court, which was responsible for the case in the lower court due to the Verfassungsschutz service headquarters in Cologne. In March 2022, the Cologne court dismissed a complaint by the AfD against its classification as a suspected case around a year earlier. The party appealed. At the beginning of the hearing at the OVG in Münster in mid-March, the AfD filed numerous motions for recusal against the judges. A lawyer for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution accused the AfD of trying to drag out the proceedings.

The ruling comes in the middle of the election campaign for the European elections at the beginning of June and the preparations for the state elections in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony. According to surveys, the AfD is particularly strong in the eastern German states.