The Extremadura Alternative party for Germany (AFD) presented a judicial resource against the decision of intelligence services to classify it as a “extremist” party likely to represent a danger to the democratic order, said a spokesman for the formation.
The spokesman declared that a lawsuit was filed against the decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV) before the Administrative Court of the City of Colonia.
AFD’s ideology, which “devalue whole groups of the population in Germany and threatens their human dignity,” is not “compatible with the fundamental democratic order,” the BFV said on Friday to justify its decision.
This classification gives the authorities important means of surveillance and control, including private communications of party leaders, if necessary.
The announcement also reactivated the debate on an eventual illegalization of AFD, which will be one of the first hot matters that the conservative Friedrich Merz must discuss, which on Tuesday will be elected head of Government of Germany.
The American vice president JD Vance accused Germany of having rebuilt a Berlin wall, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the decision of “disguised tyranny” and asked that Germany “reversed”.
The German Internal Intelligence Service “operates autonomously” and its decision is the result of an “thorough and neutral exam”, the Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.
“We strongly reject” Marco Rubio’s statements, the spokesman for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Fischer, added at a press conference.
Founded in 2013, the Alternative Party for Germany achieved a historical advance in the general elections of February 23, being second with more than 20% of the votes, doubling its previous result.
Since then, the party has even surpassed the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Friedrich Merz in some opinion polls.
JPL/YLF/ZM-AVL/ZM
