Unveiling the Office for the Protection of the Constitution's Assessment on the AfD: A Closer Look
- ~3 min read
Classified AFD Evaluation: Insights from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Regarding the Alternative for Germany Party - Leaked Reports from AfD: Constitutional Protection Office Confirmed
The AfD, since its inception, has been met with a fair share of criticism. Four of its state associations have been labeled as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution - a label that now extends to the party as a whole. In the past few years, the agency has amassed enough evidence against the AfD to warrant this classification: human-disdaining statements and positions, anti-democratic tendencies, and a questionable comprehension of the people. This is according to the 1108-page assessment of Germany's largest opposition party by the domestic intelligence service.
In May, the agency declared the federal party unconstitutional but kept the assessment under wraps. The "Ask the State" platform and the news magazine "Der Spiegel" subsequently published excerpts from the document. It examines 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, and names them as partly anti-democratic, anti-foreigner, and anti-Islamic. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution concludes that there is a "consolidated anti-foreigner attitude" in the "top leadership structure of the AfD".
The party leadership reacted defensively. Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla accused the agency of misusing state power to combat and marginalize the opposition. The AfD is now suing the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for the upgrade to right-wing extremist.
Racist Statements and Positions of the AfD
Since 2021, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case. The assessment reveals a party that has shifted increasingly to the right in recent years. Members of the liberal-conservative faction have gradually left the party. The constitutional protectors observed a radicalization, especially since 2023, and "no mitigation is visible". The völkisch-nationalist camp dominates, the report states.
Functionaries of the party differentiate between "real" Germans and "passport Germans". People with a migration background are considered second-class citizens in the party. The report provides evidence for this with racist, anti-foreigner, and völkisch statements from AfD members.
For instance, AfD Bundestag member and former youth organization "Junge Alternative" chairman, Hannes Gnauck, said at a campaign event in Brandenburg last August, "We must also decide again who actually belongs to this people and who does not. Each of you is connected to me more than any Syrian or any Afghan." This, according to Gnauck, is a "law of nature, and we can all be damn proud of it." Gnauck is also noted to have referenced "population exchange" in another speech.
The AfD and Islam
In the chapter "Islamophobia", the Office for the Protection of the Constitution mentions an interview by Alice Weidel with a YouTube channel at the end of 2023, in which she made "generalizing negative statements about Muslims". Weidel argued that Germany had created a "massive societal political problem" with the influx of "culturally foreign people", which opposes our free-democratic constitutional order.
During a campaign speech for the September 2021 Brandenburg state election, Alice Weidel escalated her anti-Muslim rhetoric, accusing Muslims in Germany of waging an aggressive jihad against non-Muslims. She claimed, "What we're experiencing on German streets is jihad. A religious war against the German population is already underway."
Terms like "knife migration," "knife immigration," "knife jihad," "over-foreignization," or the controversial term "re-migration" are not just offhand comments, constitutional experts contend, but rather a regular narrative within the AfD.
Against Democracy
However, the party isn't just targeting minorities and migrants. The domestic intelligence agency accuses party members of also targeting the "democratic principle" enshrined in the Basic Law. The report cites statements by AfD politicians who have branded politicians from other parties as "traitors to the people."
For example, co-party leader Tino Chrupalla, at a demonstration in Nuremberg in April 2023, ridiculed CDU politicians Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen, as well as former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) as "vassals of America." AfD MEP Maximilian Krah, responding to a statement by Green politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt on migration policy, declared, "This Green master plan means ethnic replacement."
Not all critical power politics are a matter for the constitutional protection agency, the office emphasizes. However, it becomes critical when the political opponent's right to exist is denied.
Debate on AfD Ban Procedure
The classification of the AfD as a "far-right extremist" threat in Germany has revived the long-standing debate over banning the party. The new federal government is currently keeping a low profile. Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that the report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution must first be analyzed before it can be politically evaluated. "And before such an evaluation is made, I personally will not give recommendations for further conclusions by the government," Merz confirmed.
However, following the classification by the domestic intelligence agency, the Chancellor clearly rejects the election of AfD members to committee chairs in the Bundestag. "Since last weekend, it's also unacceptable to me that members of the German Bundestag would elect AfD members to committee chairs."
- The Commission, in its analysis of policy-and-legislation and general-news, has not yet adopted a proposal for a directive on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens, but the AfD's policy on this matter may come under further scrutiny given its classification as a suspected right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
- Following the Office for the Protection of the Constitution's assessment of the AfD as partly anti-democratic, anti-foreigner, and anti-Islamic, political parties may have to reconsider their alliances and alignments, potentially leading to shifts in the politics of crime-and-justice.
- Spiegel's analyzes of the AfD's policies have been instrumental in bringing to light the unconstitutional tendencies within the party, thereby triggering calls for a closer examination of the AfD's actions and positions in the realm of human rights and civil liberties.
- Unconstitutional actions by political parties can lead to a deep mistrust in the democratic process, and this is especially true in the case of the AfD, whose policies have consistently been analyzed and deemed questionable by Germany's domestic intelligence service.
- In an age where extremist tendencies are prevalent worldwide, understanding and addressing the unconstitutional activities of political parties like the AfD is crucial for maintaining the integrity and stability of the democratic system, a topic of significant importance for the future of policy-and-legislation and crime-and-justice.
