On Monday morning, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party urgently filed an appeal to the Cologne Administrative court in connection with the recognition of the party by the German authorities as extremist. This was reported by the German media.
“The AFD’s activities do not contradict the Constitution, and the party does not conduct xenophobic or anti–Islamic agitation,” said Christian Konrad, the party’s lawyer.
On Friday, May 2, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Counterintelligence) published a statement classifying the entire AFD party as a right-wing extremist organization. This allows the German intelligence services to conduct operational work on right-wing populists. In other words, to tap phones, monitor emails, and infiltrate their ranks. The reason given was the alleged intolerance of right-wing populists towards people of non-German nationality.
The press reports that the volume of counterintelligence analysis on the illegal activities of the AFG is 1 thousand pages, but the full text is unknown to the public. It is believed that the actions of counterintelligence against right-wing populists are dictated by the decisions of the previous German government. After all, counterintelligence is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which until recently was controlled by the Social Democrats. This is supported by a public statement by Interior Minister Nancy Feather, who supported the findings of counterintelligence. She claims that the AfD considers migrants to be second-class people, and this, they say, contradicts the country’s Constitution.
It is no coincidence that at the end of last year, more than 100 deputies of the former Bundestag from various factions tried to introduce a resolution to parliament banning AFG, but did not have time for purely organizational reasons. If the resolution had been adopted, it would have been considered by the Constitutional Court. It is he who makes the final verdict.
The decision of the counterintelligence officers has revived the discussion on the prohibition of AFG. The fact is that the right-wing populist party, created in 2013, according to the latest opinion polls, is already ahead of all other political forces in the country. 26% of voters are ready to vote for her. At the same time, in the former GDR, the popularity of the AfD in some places exceeds 40%.
In Germany, in this regard, they are already talking about the appearance of a new Berlin Wall in the minds of the population, separating Eastern and Western citizens. And the only way for the authorities of the country to eliminate this party is to ban its activities.
In hot pursuit, the media conducted a public survey regarding measures related to ADHD. 48% of respondents were in favor of banning it, 37% were against it, and 15% were undecided. Discussions on this issue have begun in the political parties.
As already reported by NG (see issue dated 05/5.25), the leader of the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) called for the prohibition of AFD, and in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), an influential wing that defends the interests of workers. At the same time, Jens Spahn, who took over the post of head of the CDU faction in the Bundestag, spoke out against the ban. The head of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, remains silent for now and does not even answer direct questions from journalists.
In Germany, only leftist politician Sarah Wagenknecht has spoken out against plans to ban AFG. She described the situation around AfD as a manifestation of authoritarian tendencies in the country.
The harsh criticism of Berlin came from Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that the recognition of AFD as an extremist organization does not fall within the framework of democracy, but is a hidden tyranny. And US Vice President Jay Dee Vance called the AFD “the most popular party” in Germany and announced the restoration of the Berlin Wall by the hands of the German establishment.
Quoting the words of American politicians, the German media draw attention to the presence of a “spiritual connection” between the Donald Trump administration and the right-wing populists of Germany.