How the AfD tries to prevent the observation after all

The AfD wants to use legal means to prevent the protection of the constitution from observing it as a whole. After media reports piled up in recent days that the decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) is imminent, the AfD has submitted two lawsuits and two urgent motions to the administrative court in Cologne.

In it, the AfD applies on the one hand to forbid the protection of the constitution to classify it as a “suspected case” or secured right-wing extremist tendencies and to make this public.

On the other hand, the AfD wants to ensure that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is not allowed to disclose its findings about how many members the formally dissolved “wing” has in the AfD.

The party had already announced that the AfD would defend itself legally if the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should classify it as a suspected case. It is surprising that the AfD is suing before the observation was even announced. The court spokeswoman announced an interim decision by the court for Monday, a so-called hanging decision.

Should this decision go in favor of the AfD, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution will probably not be able to announce the general observation of the AfD in the coming week, as many expected. But even if the court decision is negative for the AfD, it is unclear how it will proceed.

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According to “Spiegel”, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) has instructed the lawyers of his house, together with the experts from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, to bend over the 1000-page long secret report with which the AfD could be declared a “suspected case”. The reason should be absolutely legally secure. Behind this is also the concern that the AfD could win in court in the year of the Bundestag election.

The AfD has done a lot in the last few days to prevent the general observation. She had recently published a statement with which she wanted to demonstrate her loyalty to the constitution.

In this “Declaration on the German State People and German Identity”, also signed by the Thuringian right-wing politician Björn Höcke, it said: The AfD confessed “unconditionally to the German state people as the sum of all persons who have German citizenship”. The party was apparently trying to send a message at the last minute. In the past she had repeatedly spoken of “passport Germans”, suggesting that there were first and second class Germans.

Defeat for Kalbitz in court

The AfD also tried to use a confidential paper from the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution that had been leaked to it. This is a draft interim report. In it, for example, racist or ethnic statements by AfD politicians are listed.

Nevertheless, the paper then comes to the conclusion that there are no “sufficient factual indications for anti-constitutional efforts of the AfD Berlin” that could justify a survey of the suspected case. The Berlin Senate Administration emphasizes that there are methodological deficiencies in the draft and that it is by no means a conclusive assessment.

In order to avoid an overall observation by the protection of the constitution, AfD boss Jörg Meuthen obtained the self-dissolution of the völkisch “wing” last year and had the Brandenburg state chief Andreas Kalbitz thrown out of the party.

This defended himself legally against the cancellation of his party membership – so far unsuccessfully. On Friday, he took action against the rejection of his urgent application before the Berlin Superior Court. He failed again. The party expulsion by the party arbitration tribunal was “understandable in every respect,” said the presiding judge.