Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been designated as right-wing extremist by the country's federal office for the protection of the constitution. "The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order," the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement. The AfD came second in federal elections in February, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote. The parliament, or Bundestag, will hold a vote next week to confirm conservative leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor, heading a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats. AfD joint leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said the decision was "clearly politically motivated" and a "severe blow to German democracy". They argued their party was being "discredited and criminalized" shortly before the change of government. The far-right AfD had already been placed under observation for suspected extremism in Germany, and the intelligence agency had also classed it as right-wing extremist in three states in the east, where its popularity is highest. The agency, or Verfassungschutz, said specifically that the AfD did not consider citizens of a "migration background from predominantly Muslim countries" as equal members of the German people. AfD deputy chairman Stephan Brandner said the decision was "complete nonsense, has absolutely nothing to do with law and order". However, acting Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the agency had made a clear and unambiguous decision with "no political influence whatsoever", after a comprehensive review and a report of 1,100 pages. Bundestag Vice-President Andrea Lindholz said that as a designated right-wing extremist group the AfD should not be treated as other parties, especially in parliament. Because of their large number of seats, AfD members could be eligible to chair parliamentary committees, but Lindholz said that idea was now "almost unthinkable". After their election success, AfD leaders said the so-called firewall that had prevented other parties from working with them should end. "Anyone who erects firewalls will get grilled behind them," said Tino Chrupalla. Having doubled its share of the vote in under four years, Chrupalla's party is still second in the opinion polls behind Merz's conservatives, despite several scandals, including one high-profile member being convicted of using banned Nazi slogans. Earlier this year Alice Weidel embraced the term "remigration", widely seen as meaning the mass deportation of people with a migrant background, although she rejected that definition. The AfD also attracted the support of leading figures in the Trump administration. Nine days before the election, US Vice-President JD Vance met Weidel in Munich and said there was no place for "firewalls", alleging that free speech was in retreat in Europe. Tech billionaire Elon Musk gave Weidel a long audience in a livestreamed chat on X and called on Germans to vote for the AfD. He then repeatedly posted his support for Weidel's party in the run-up to the vote. Germany's domestic intelligence agency is responsible for both counter-intelligence and investigating terror threats. Although its change in designation of the AfD is expected to be challenged in the courts, it would likely lower the threshold for the agency using informants and surveillance in monitoring the party. Domestic intelligence cannot push for a ban on the party — that can only go through parliament, government or the constitutional court — but its latest decision could encourage others to start the process. The deputy leader of the Social Democrat SPD, Serpil Midyatli, said it was now in black and white what everybody already knew. "It's clear for me that the ban has to come," she said, according to German press agency dpa. Regardless of the AfD's election success, she said the founding fathers of Germany's post-war constitution had sought to ensure the country would not be plunged back into the abyss. — BBC
