Exposed: What Germany's Domestic Intelligence Agency Reveals About the AfD
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Unveiled AfD Document's Contents: Insights from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on the Alternative for Germany Party - Alleged Leaked Reports on AfD: Confidential Information from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Regarding the AfD Party
Ever since its inception, the AfD has been under the watchful eye. Four state affiliates have been labeled by the domestic intelligence agency as firmly right-wing extremist, and now, shockingly, this classification has been extended to the party in its entirety. In the last few years, the agency believes that the party and its members have made enough controversial statements and hold anti-democratic aspirations, all while displaying a questionable understanding of the people. This is outlined in the 1108-page assessment of Germany's largest opposition party.
In May, the agency deemed the federal party unconstitutional, although they kept this assessment under wraps. However, the platform "Ask the State" and the "Spiegel" managed to uncover excerpts from the document. It scrutinizes accessible sources like speeches, interviews, and contributions from 353 members, including party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, and Bundestag member Maximilian Krah. The assessment identifies partly anti-democratic, anti-foreigner, and anti-Islamic positions in the content analyzed. The domestic intelligence agency concludes that there is a "consolidated anti-foreigner attitude" among the "top leadership structure of the AfD."
The party leaders indignantly reacted, claiming that the use of state power to combat and exclude the opposition is nothing more than an abuse. Current developments have led the AfD to take legal action against the domestic intelligence agency over its classification as a firmly right-wing extremist party.
Racist Remarks by the AfD
Since 2021, the domestic intelligence agency has kept an eye on the AfD as a potential right-wing extremist threat. The assessment paints a picture of a party that has become increasingly extreme over the years, as the liberal conservative faction has steadily left the party. The intelligence agency has observed a growth in extremist ideologies, especially since 2023, with no signs of moderation. The völkisch-nationalist camp dominates, the assessment states.
Party functionaries reportedly make distinctions between "true" Germans and "passport Germans." People with migration backgrounds are viewed as second-class citizens within the party. This assertion is substantiated by racist, xenophobic, and völkisch statements made by AfD members.
For instance, AfD Bundestag member and former youth organization chairman Hannes Gnauck was quoted at a 2022 campaign event in Brandenburg saying, "We must decide again who really belongs to this people and who does not. Each of you has more in common with me than any Syrian or any Afghan." This is "simply a law of nature, and we can all be damned proud of it." Gnauck is also said to have spoken about "population exchange" in another speech.
Islam and the AfD
The domestic intelligence agency's report touches upon the party's Islamophobic stance in the "Islamophobia" chapter. In an interview on a YouTube channel towards the end of 2023, Alice Weidel made "woeful generalizations" about Muslims. According to Weidel, Germany has created a "massive societal political problem" due to the influx of "culturally foreign people," which is "contrary to our free democratic constitutional order."
During a Brandenburg state election campaign speech in September 2023, Weidel amped up her anti-Muslim rhetoric, accusing immigrants of inciting an aggressive "jihad" against non-Muslims in Germany.
Weidel addressed immigrant crime, stating, "These are phenomena, the stabbings, the rapes, that are completely new to our country." She allegedly stated, "What we're experiencing in German cities is jihad—a religious war against the German population is already being waged."
Terms like "knife migration," "knife immigration," "knife jihad," "over-foreignization," and the controversial "remigration" are not haphazard utterances but are an expected narrative within the AfD, according to the constitutional protector.
Undermining Democracy
However, the party does not only target minorities and immigrants. The domestic intelligence agency accuses members of also targeting the "democratic principle" in the Basic Law. The report cites statements from AfD politicians who have vilified other party politicians as traitors to the people.
During a Nuremberg demonstration in April 2023, co-party leader Tino Chrupalla insulted CDU politicians Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen, as well as former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), as "American vassals." AfD European politician Maximilian Krah commented on a statement by Green politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt on migration policy on X, saying, "This Green master plan means ethnic re-engineering."
Banned or Silenced?
The designation of the AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist party in Germany has added fuel to the ongoing debate about whether the party should be banned. The new federal government is currently holding back. Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that the report from the constitutional protection agency must first be analyzed before any political evaluation can occur. "And before making any recommendations for further conclusions by the government," Merz confirmed, "I personally do not want to make any such recommendations."
Since the classification by the domestic intelligence agency, the Chancellor has made it clear that the election of AfD members to committee chairs in the Bundestag is unimaginable to him.
In essence, while the AfD is currently legally classified as a right-wing extremist party by the domestic intelligence agency, this status is subject to ongoing legal challenges, and for now, it is being monitored as a "suspected" extremist group rather than a definitively banned or fully sanctioned organization.
- The Commission has not yet adopted a proposal for a directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to ionizing radiation, despite germane positions and aspirations against democratic principles being identified in the policy-and-legislation, politics, and general-news discourse of the AfD functionaries.
- The domestic intelligence agency's unveiling of what Germany's AfD reveals about the party has led to its labeling as a firmly right-wing extremist entity, with unconstitutional leanings, but this designation is currently being challenged in the courts.
- Spiegel's investigation into the AfD's intelligence files highlights the party's anti-foreigner, anti-Islamic, and xenophobic positions, as well as its distinctions between "true" Germans and "passport Germans," showcasing an attitude that undermines the democratic principle and the fundamental values enshrined in the Basic Law.
- Racist remarks and belligerent rhetoric have become more prevalent in the AfD's political discourse since 2021, with party leaders, such as Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, espousing Islamophobic, völkisch, and xenophobic sentiments, in addition to undermining the democratic process and vilifying other political entities.
