Strongest opposition party in Germany declared “right wing extremist”

The federal office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the German domestic intelligence agency, several days ago gave out a press release where they announced a new study (1100 pages, not yet publicly disclosed) that had been concluded by the BfV according to which the “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) was qualified as “confirmed right- wing extremist movement” due to the “extremist nature of the party as a whole”, which “disregards human dignity” i.a. The AfD had in the recent federal election received nearly 21% of the vote -more than 10 million voters (in East Germany alone around 40%). With 152 deputies (f.i. the governing conservative CDU in the coalition governing has 160 deputies) it is the strongest opposition party. The internal spy agency is under the supervision of the interior ministry. At the time of the announcement this ministry was still led by Nancy Faeser (SPD), only a few days before the new government came in. The AfD filed an urgent lawsuit against the agency, showing the “obvious political intent to intimidate” the voters and members of the strongest opposition party in the Federal Parliament. As of today (08.05.25) the BfV declared a “stand still agreement”, meaning that the office will hold back until the court has made a decision, which might take some months.

Previously the Cologne Administrative Court and Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine Westphalia in Münster (OVG, NRW) had confirmed the classification of the party as a “suspected case” (of being rightwing extremist) in rulings which occurred in March 2022 and May 2024, along the line that there were numerous “indications” of efforts by the AfD to “undermine the free democratic basic order.” These assumptions have been confirmed during further data collection and have largely been substantiated, it was stated.

In the communique it is stated that the “BfV came to this conclusion after intensive and comprehensive expert examination.  In accordance with its legal mandate, the BfV had to assess the party’s actions against the central principles of the constitution: human dignity, democracy, and the rule of law. In addition to the federal party’s program and statements, particular attention was paid to the statements and other behavior of its representatives and their links to right-wing extremist actors and groups.” It was further concluded that “the ethnic-ancestral understanding of the people („Volk“) that prevails within the party (AFD) is incompatible with the free democratic basic order.” It aims to exclude certain “population groups from equal participation in society”, subject them to unconstitutional “unequal treatment, and thereby assign them a legally inferior status.” Specifically, “the AFD does not consider German citizens with a migration background from Muslim- influenced countries to be equal members of the German people as defined by the party or ethnic grounds”.

“This exclusionary understanding of the people … defames and stokes ‘irrational fears and rejection’ towards them (….). This is evident in the large number of ongoing xenophobia, anti- minority, anti- Islam, and anti- Muslim statements made by leading party officials.” This “promotes prejudices, resentment, and fears against refugees and migrants.” The devaluation of the aforementioned groups is also evident in the sweeping use of terms such as “knife migrants” (based on recorded violent attacks by knives of migrants) or in the general attribution of ethnocultural propensity for violence by leading members of the AfD.”

According to the acting BfV Vice President Sinan Selen and Vice President Dr. Silke Willems (the previous President Haldenwang left his position before the federal election to run as candidate for the CDU; he did not win a position) it was concluded: “We have come to the conclusion that “Alternative für Deutschland” is a confirmed right- wing extremist movement.”

Reactions from media and political representatives

The style and the way in which the operation was launched has the smell of an incredible intrigue that has been prepared since a longer time under the green -red coalition and was exploding days before the new government under CDU Chancellor Merz was installed. I.e.  at the eve of the inauguration of the newly constituted government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his CDU/ CSU and SPD coalition Friday 2^nd of May, it was reported all over Germany that the interior ministry under the outgoing SPD Minister Nancy Faeser- on the basis of the newly compiled BfV study had declared that the “AfD was a confirmed Right wing extremist party.”

US Foreign State Secretary Marco Rubio came out in a provocative statement on the Online platform X by underlining that “Germany’s spy agency took new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise.” What is “truly extremist is not the AfD – which took second in the recent election- but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies, which the party is opposing, he said.  Rubio advised the German government “to reverse its political course”, which caused very strong public reactions. F.i. the German foreign ministry then still under Annalena Baerbock (Greenie) responded: “This is democracy, the decision is the result of a thorough and independent investigation to protect our constitution and the rule of law.  It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.”

This is “ideological snooping”

The Swiss Daily Weltwoche interviewed the former BfV President Georg Maaßen who was in office as BfV president from August 2012 till November 2018. (He was ousted for “inappropriate behavior” in a case concerning riots right/ left wing extremist incidents 2018 in Chemnitz (East Germany), where he criticized the media reporting.) Being a former member of the CDU, the well- informed law expert Maaßen got excluded from the CDU and then became chairman of a new conservative oriented party formation “Werteunion” which didn’t get significant results in the recent elections.

In the interview Maaßen underlined that he was “shocked” about the BfV study and the BfV’s impertinence, the allowance to be “instrumentalized” by politics in Germany, specifically by the Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), whom he identified in the interview as “close” to the “Antifa” (a leftwing radical group and magazine). He noted that under Faeser this method of instrumentalizing the BfV was shamelessly “abused”. He mentioned other cases such as the case of a famous German Navy Vice-Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach, who was ousted 2022 by the respective SPD minister because of his “political controversial” remarks “concerning Russia”. Similarly, under Interior Minister Nancy Faeser the BfV engaged in activities against political opponents (“rightwing extremists”) as well as in illegal house search of a magazine “Compact.” Faeser “unscrupellously misused her power “as interior minister, according to Maaßen.

In reality, as Maaßen stated, the BfV has to be an independent institution (according to the constitution) and can’t be misused for political observation unless there is a criminal terrorist case involved. Hence the whole thing smells like “being politically motivated.”

Maaßen warned that there is a big “split” in Germany which is becoming even deeper, hatred and diffamation grow every week. This stands against a party landscape where the SPD hardly got 16% in the recent elections, the Greenies 11% and the AFD 20% – in East Germany  in many parts even 40%. Even if it is true that the AFD at the right of its spectrum has been attractive for many right wingers and radicals, the “arrogance” which we see actually on the side of politicians like Faeser and in the CDU is a very bad “signal” for the country.  In addition, the attempt to qualify the AFD as “confirmed right wing extremists” and base that on the fact that it has a questionable criteria concerning the definition of “German people”, namely an “ethnic-cultural criteria,” has nothing to do with the defense of the “free democratic basic order” as demanded in the constitution. Maaßen referred to the German Constitution Art 116 as being clear in this respect.  He also said that the CDU sees the AFD as an “unpleasant competitor”, that Dobrindt (CSU) the new interior minister, “won’t get dirty hands” and that many do not feel pleased about the call for “prohibiting” the entire AFD.

In another Weltwoche interview with Ralf Schuler (from the news channel “NIUS” and  the paper “Bild”), who knows the political Berlin very well, it was stated by Schuler, that to say “confirmed right wing extremist” would mean that the entire party has a “nationalistic view of human beings” and that basically they laid the new interior Minister Dobrindt “a bad egg in the nest” and force him to deal with this somehow. The main attack against the AFD is their ethnic understanding of peoples.  This is problematic of course. Whoever wants to preserve German cultural tradition is labeled “right wing”.  And then there is the idea to “put the AFD under observation”. Schuler stated that what was intended is to show the “monstrosity of the AFD” and portray them as an “alien” element; it’s after all a party that obtained 20%.  It’s in reality a party that is not homogeneous but diverse.

He very much emphasized that what goes on in Germany with this kind of militant attitude is “ideological snooping” (as was known from the practice of the STASI in the former DDR e.h.)., which was evidenced by the way in which they got rid of the former BfV President, Dr Hans-Georg Maaßen. So far there are no tendencies to take the step of “banning” the AFD. This only could be done on the basis of a parliamentary or federal council decision. But what is questionable is “that one treats an opposition party as if it is planning a coup against our democratic order.”  In reality what happened in the last years in the country, with Corona, the Ukraine war, the debate about minorities, migration, clan wars etc, is, according to Schuler, “that many citizens in the country feel totally insecure and feel emotionally shaken, even almost ill.“ The whole thing is a “verdict” against the “average voter.”

During a recent Munich Security Conference event (7.05.25 in Washington) in a Q and A session between former MSC chairman Wolfgang Ischinger and Vice-President J.D. Vance, Vance reiterated again what he had stated in principle at the last MSC conference in Munich in February 2025, namely that “everything which I said then applies to the previous administration as to Europe…. All of us, including the US, we must be careful not to undermine the boundaries of our democracy.” He stressed again, even if each country draws different boundaries, (but) the “freedom of speech must be protected”.

08/05/2025