Unveiling the AfD: What Germany's Domestic Intelligence Agency Reveals About the Alternative for Germany
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Intelligence Agency's Confidential Report on AfD: Insights from the Intelligence Service Regarding the Alternative for Germany Party - Leaked Reports from AfD: Constitutional Protection Office Affirms the News
Ever since its establishment, the AfD has been under the spotlight. Initially, four state associations were labeled as extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). Now, this classification branded the entire party. Over the past years, the authorities have amassed enough evidence: disparaging remarks, attempts to undermine democracy, and a questionable perception of society. This summary comes from BfV's 1108-page assessment of Germany's largest opposition party.
In May, the authority marked the federal party as unconstitutional. The report was initially hidden, but "Ask the State" platform and "Der Spiegel" news magazine published excerpts from the document. It scrutinized accessible sources such as speeches, interviews, and contributions from 353 members, including party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla and Bundestag member Maximilian Krah, branding them as holding partly anti-democratic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic positions. The BfV concludes that there is a "consolidated anti-immigrant attitude" within the "AfD's top leadership."
The party leadership reacted angrily, accusing the BfV of misusing power to suppress the opposition. The AfD is now suing the Office for the Protection of the Constitution due to the classification upgrade as an extremist party.
Racial Slurs and Biased Positions of the AfD
Since 2021, the BfV categorized the AfD as a potential right-wing extremist entity. The report paints a picture of a party that's gradually shifted to the right in recent years. The liberal-conservative faction has progressively left the party. The constitutional protectors have observed a radicalization, particularly since 2023, and "no moderation is apparent." The report suggests that the völkisch-nationalist camp dominates.
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AfD party members distinguish between "real" Germans and "passport Germans." Immigrants with a migration background are considered second-class citizens within the party. The report presents evidence for this with racist, anti-immigrant, and völkisch remarks by AfD members.
Hannes Gnauck, the AfD Bundestag member, and former chairman of the Junge Alternative youth organization, stated at a campaign event in Brandenburg last August, "We must also decide again who actually belongs to this people, and who doesn't. Each of you is connected to me more than any Syrian or any Afghan." This is simply "a law of nature, and we can all be proud of it." Gnauck is also reported to have spoken about "population exchange" in another speech.
The AfD and Islam
In the chapter "Islamophobia," the BfV discusses an interview by Alice Weidel with a YouTube channel in late 2023, during which she made "generalized negative statements about Muslims." Weidel argued that Germany had created a "massive sociopolitical problem" by allowing "culturally foreign people to immigrate" - conflicting with Germany's free democratic basic order.
In a campaign speech for the Brandenburg state election in September 2023, Weidel escalated her anti-Muslim rhetoric, accusing them of "aggressive jihad against non-Muslims in Germany."
Weidel discussed migrant crime. "These are phenomena, the chaos, the rapes, that are completely new in our country," Weidel said. "What we're experiencing in the streets of Germany is jihad - a religious war against the German population."
Terms such as "knife migration," "knife immigration," "knife jihad," "over-foreignization," or the contentious term "re-migration" are not spontaneous outbursts but a recurring narrative within the AfD, according to the BfV.
Opposing Democracy
The party is not only targeting minorities and immigrants. The BfV accuses party members of also attacking the democratic principle in the Basic Law. The report cites statements from AfD politicians who have labeled politicians from other parties as "traitors to the people."
At a demonstration in Nuremberg in April 2023, co-leader Tino Chrupalla insulted CDU politicians Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen, along with then-Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), as "American vassals." AfD MEP Maximilian Krah responded to a statement by Green politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt on migration policy with "This Green master plan means ethnic replacement."
Not every polemical power critique is a case for the BfV, the agency emphasizes. But at the point where the political opponent's right to exist is denied, it becomes critical.
Debate on the AfD Ban Procedure
The classification of the AfD as an extremist party in Germany has renewed the ongoing debate about banning the party. The new federal government is refraining from taking immediate action. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the BfV's report must be first analyzed before it can be politically evaluated. "And before making such an evaluation, I personally do not want to give recommendations for further conclusions by the government," Merz confirmed.
However, Merz firmly rejects the election of AfD members to committee chairs in the Bundestag following the BfV's classification. "At the latest since last weekend, it is also unthinkable to me that AfD members in the German Bundestag are elected to committee chairs."
- The Commission has not yet adopted a proposal for a directive on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens, despite the AfD's questionable stance on occupational health and safety being scrutinized by German authorities.
- Der Spiegel news magazine, in collaboration with "Ask the State" platform, published excerpts from a document that classifies the AfD as unconstitutional, raising concerns about the party's adherence to democracy and their anti-democratic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Islamic positions.
- Transcripts of speeches, interviews, and contributions from 353 AfD members, including party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, reveal phrases such as "knife migration" and "knife jihad," indicative of the party's biased and Islamophobic views.
- The ongoing debate about banning the AfD continues, with the new federal government analyzing the report from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution before making a decision, while simultaneously rejecting the election of AfD members to committee chairs in the Bundestag.
