The German Counterintelligence (BfV) ranked the Right-Populist alternate organization for Germany (AfD) on Friday as an extremist organization that threatens democracy.
The suspicion that AfD is acting against the free, democratic order of the state has been confirmed," stated the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, quoted by the dpa agency.
BfV made its decision on the basis of an interior expert study of about 1.1 1000 pages. The paper stresses that the AfD evaluation is primarily based on the dominant knowing of a nation in this party, which is based not on citizenship, but primarily on origin.
"Germany of the second category"
The Authority stressed that the party's dominant concept based on cultural categories "is intended to exclude certain groups of the population from equal participation in society and to treat them in a way that violates the constitution and thus gives them a legally inferior status".
The statements and views of the AfD and its leading representatives violate the rule of respect for human dignity - stated the deputy chiefs BfV, Sinan Selen and Silke Willems.
Home Minister Nancy Faeser stated in a message that "AfD represents an knowing of a nation that discriminates against full groups of population and treats citizens with experience of migration as second-class Germans". As she pointed out, this 'ethnic idea' is expressed in "Rasist statements, especially to immigrants and Muslims".
At the same time, she assured that "there were no political pressures" on BfV's expertise.
What does this decision mean?
Member of the Baden-Württemberg Landtag of AFD Anton Baron described the fresh classification of his group as "politically questionable". "It is sad to observe the state of democracy in our country erstwhile old parties usage the most politically questionable methods towards the strongest opposition group" - he said.
The classification of AfD as an extremist organisation will enable the authorities to usage classified methods to monitor the activities of that group, which took second place in the February parliamentary elections.
The stigma associated with giving specified position and the resulting restrictions on taking up public service jobs will besides make AfD more hard to attract fresh members," Reuters noted.
Earlier, AfD youth and its structures in 3 states: Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalta were considered extremistic.
The classification of AfD as an extremist entity does not mean the illegalisation of the group. Only the Constitutional Court may decide on it at the request of 1 of the 2 chambers of parliament (Bundestag or Bundesrat) or government.
The outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic SPD stressed that BfV had very comprehensively motivated her decision. He added that there was no request to rush into any possible illegalisation procedure.
PAP
