Exposed Directly: The Domestic Intelligence Agency's Perspective on the AfD
Disclosed AFDM Report: Insights from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution Regarding the AFDM - Leaked Reports by AfD: Insights from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Regarding the AfD Party
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Since its inception, the AfD has been under close scrutiny. Four state branches have been labeled by the domestic intelligence agency as firmly right-wing extremist — a classification now extended to the party as a whole. Over the past few years, the agency claims, sufficient evidence has been gathered: inflammatory comments and stances from the party and its members, anti-democratic actions, and questionable understanding of the populace. These are some of the points made in the 1108-page report crafted by Germany's largest opposition party, the AfD.
In May, the agency declared the federal party unconstitutional, but kept the report confidential. Excerpts from the document were later published by the online platform "Ask the State" and news magazine "Der Spiegel." The report scrutinizes accessible sources such as speeches, interviews, and other contributions from 353 members, including party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, and Bundestag member Maximilian Krah. The domestic intelligence agency classifies many of them as holding partly anti-democratic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic viewpoints. The agency asserted that a "consolidated anti-immigrant mentality" permeates the "upper management of the AfD."
The party leaders reacted with indignation. Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla accused the agency of misusing state power to stifle and marginalize opposition. In response, the AfD filed a lawsuit against the domestic intelligence agency.
The AfD's Racist Viewpoints
Since 2021, the domestic intelligence agency has designated the AfD as a right-wing extremist suspect. The report presents a picture of a party that has shifted increasingly to the right in recent years. Members of the liberal-conservative wing have gradually abandoned the party. The intelligence agency highlights a radicalization, especially since 2023, and no remediation is discernible. The report states that the völkisch-nationalist faction is dominant.
Party officials were found to distinguish between "real" Germans and "passport Germans." Individuals with a migrant background were considered lesser citizens within the party. The report illustrates this through racist, xenophobic, and völkisch statements made by AfD members.
For instance, AfD Bundestag member and the erstwhile chair of the youth organization, Junge Alternative, Hannes Gnauck, during a campaign event in Brandenburg last August declared, "We must once again decide who actually belongs to this nation and who does not. Each of you has more in common with me than any Syrian or any Afghan." He also seemingly spoke of "population exchange" in another speech.
The AfD and Islam
In the chapter "Islamophobia," the domestic intelligence agency references an interview with Alice Weidel on a YouTube channel at the end of 2023, in which she made "sweeping negative remarks about Muslims." Weidel allegedly said that Germany had exacerbated a "massive societal political problem" with the influx of "culturally alien individuals," which goes against the free democratic constitutional order.
In a campaign speech for the Brandenburg state election in September 2023, Weidel escalated her anti-Muslim rhetoric, accusing her of "aggressive jihad against non-Muslims in Germany." Weidel spoke about immigrant crime, stating, "These are phenomena, the random violence, the rapes, that are unprecedented in our country. What we're experiencing on German streets is jihad. A religious war against the German people is already in progress."
Terms like "knife migration," "knife immigration," "knife jihad," "overforeignization," or the controversial term "remigration" are not spontaneous outbursts but a regular narrative within the AfD, according to the constitutional protector.
Demonizing Democracy
However, the party is not just targeting minorities and immigrants. The domestic intelligence agency accuses party members of also opposing the "democratic principle" outlined in the Basic Law. The report cites statements by AfD politicians who have disparaged politicians from other parties as "traitors to the people."
For example, co-party leader Chrupalla insulted CDU politicians Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen, as well as ex-Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), as "vassals of America" at a demonstration in Nuremberg in April 2023. AfD MEP Maximilian Krah commented on a statement by Green politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt on migration policy on X, stating, "This Green master plan means ethnic replacement."
Not every critical speech is a case for the constitutional protection agency, but it becomes critical when a political adversary's right to exist is denied.
Discussions on the Ban of the AfD
The classification of the AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist in Germany has rekindled the longstanding debate over banning the party. The new federal government is currently refraining from action. Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated, "The report by the constitutional protection agency must first be thoroughly reviewed before it can be politically evaluated."
However, the Chancellor explicitly rejects the election of AfD members to committee chairs in the Bundestag following classification by the domestic intelligence agency. "At least since last weekend, it's unimaginable for me that members of the German Bundestag would elect AfD members to committee chairs."
[1] Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) Report on the AfD, Accessed [Insert Date].
- 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, but the domestic intelligence agency in Germany has classified the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a firm right-wing extremist, unconstitutional, and partly anti-democratic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic, based on evidences gathered from inflammatory comments and stances from the party and its members, anti-democratic actions, and questionable understanding of the populace.
- In the report scrutinized by Der Spiegel, many AfD members, including party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, and Bundestag member Maximilian Krah, were found to hold partly anti-democratic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic viewpoints, with a consolidated anti-immigrant mentality permeating the upper management of the AfD.
- The AfD leaders, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, accused the domestic intelligence agency of misusing state power to stifle and marginalize opposition and even filed a lawsuit against the agency.
- The AfD's racism towards minorities and immigrants has been highlighted by the domestic intelligence agency, with members of the party found to distinguish between "real" Germans and "passport Germans" and making racist, xenophobic, and völkisch statements.
- The longstanding debate on banning the AfD rekindled following its classification as a confirmed right-wing extremist, with the current federal government refraining from action, but the chancellor expressing his opposition to the election of AfD members to committee chairs in the Bundestag.
