Exposed Report: The BfV's Damning Verdict on the AfD
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Disclosed Report on AfD by Office for the Protection of the Constitution: Insights Regarding the Alternative for Germany Party - Leaked reports on the AfD reveal details shared by the Constitutional Protection on the Alternative for Germany party.
Ever since its inception, the AfD has been a subject of heated debate. Four state associations have been labelled by the BfV as outright right-wing extremist, a classification now applied to the party as a whole. Over the past few years, authorities have amassed sufficient evidence: disdainful remarks and controversial stances of the party and its members, anti-democratic aspirations, and a questionable understanding of the people. This is according to the 1,100-page assessment of Germany's largest opposition party, penned by the domestic intelligence service.
In May, the BfV declared the federal party unconstitutional, but kept the assessment under wraps. Excerpts, however, were published by platforms like "Ask the State" and "Spiegel", analyzed sources such as speeches, interviews, and other contributions from 353 members including party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, and Bundestag member Maximilian Krah. They were deemed to espouse partly anti-democratic, anti-foreigner, and anti-Islam positions. The BfV concluded that there's a "consolidated anti-foreigner attitude" within the AfD's "top leadership structure."
The party leadership responded with indignation, with Weidel and Chrupalla accusing authorities of misusing state power to repress their opposition. The AfD is now suing the BfV for this upgrade to outright right-wing extremist.
Racist Remarks and Stances from the AfD
Since 2021, the BfV has classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case. The report paints a picture of a party that has shifted further rightward in recent years. The liberal-conservative faction has progressively left the party. The constitutional protectors have noted a radicalization, especially since 2023, and "no moderation is in sight." The völkisch-nationalist camp dominates, according to the assessment.
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Functionaries of the party are said to differentiate between "real" Germans and "passport Germans." People with a migration background would be second-class citizens in the party. The report supports this with racist, anti-foreigner, and völkisch statements made by AfD members.
AfD Bundestag member and former chair of the youth organization, Young Alternative, Hannes Gnauck, made a provocative comment at a campaign event in Brandenburg last August. He stated, "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, he claimed, is "simply a law of nature, and we can all be damn proud of it." Gnauck is cited to have spoken of "population exchange" in another speech.
The AfD and Islam
In the "Islamophobia" chapter, the BfV mentions an interview with Alice Weidel on a YouTube channel at the end of 2023, in which she made "generalizing negative statements about Muslims." Weidel criticized Germany's influx of "culturally foreign people" as "contrary to our liberal democratic constitutional order."
In a campaign speech for the Brandenburg state election last September, Weidel escalated her anti-Muslim rhetoric, claiming they are waging an aggressive jihad against non-Muslims in Germany. Her statements on immigrant crime, stating, "These are phenomena, the random stabbings, the rapes, that are completely new to our country," were interpreted as "jihad", a religious war against the German population, already underway.
Words such as "knife migration", "knife immigration", "knife jihad", "over-foreignization", or the controversial term "re-migration" are not spontaneous outbursts, but a common narrative within the AfD according to constitutional experts.
Challenge to Democracy
The party, however, doesn't just target minorities and migrants. The domestic intelligence agency accuses members of also targeting the "democratic principle" in the Basic Law. Examples are provided from AfD politicians who have labeled opposing politicians as "traitors to the people."
During a demonstration in Nuremberg in April 2023, co-party leader Chrupalla insulted CDU politicians Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen, as well as then-Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), calling them "American vassals." MEP Maximilian Krah responded to a statement by Green politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt on migration policy, stating, "This Green master plan means ethnic replacement."
Not every critical power speech calls for the constitutional protection agency's attention, but it becomes critical when the political opponent's right to exist is denied.
Debate on the AfD Ban
The classification of the AfD as an outright right-wing extremist party in Germany has stirred up the ongoing debate over banning the party. The new federal government is currently holding back. Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that the report by the constitutional protection agency must first be analyzed before it can be politically evaluated. "And before such an evaluation is made, I personally do not want to make any recommendations for further conclusions by the government," Merz confirmed.
Nonetheless, after the classification by the domestic intelligence agency, the Chancellor clearly opposes the election of AfD members to committee chairs in the Bundestag. "Since last weekend, it is also unimaginable for me that members of the German Bundestag elect AfD members to committee chairs."
- 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 parties such as the AfD in Germany have been labelled by the BfV as outright right-wing extremist.
- The reporting by Spiegel and other platforms on the AfD's controversial policy-and-legislation stances and general-news excerpts revealed racist remarks and stances against foreigners, Islamophobia, and a consolidated anti-foreigner attitude within the AfD's top leadership structure.
- In response to the BfV's assessment of the AfD as an outright right-wing extremist party, the party leadership accused authorities of misusing state power to repress their opposition and filed a lawsuit against the BfV.
- The AfD's policy on crime and justice might face challenges, given AfD members' controversial statements, such as Hannes Gnauck's provocative comment about Syrians and Afghans not belonging to the German people, and Alice Weidel's anti-Muslim rhetoric.
- As the AfD's classification as an outright right-wing extremist party stirs up the ongoing debate over banning the party, the new federal government is holding back on a decision, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz favoring thorough analysis of the BfV report before making any recommendations for further conclusions.
