DAccording to research by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ), the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is working on classifying the entire AfD as a “secure extremist effort”. This emerges from internal emails and notes from the domestic secret service, the newspaper reported on Sunday evening.
So far, the AfD has only been listed as a so-called suspected case of right-wing extremism. But according to “SZ”, a team from the Federal Office has been working on drawing up a new report on the AfD for months. The officials only want to wait a little longer out of consideration for the upcoming hearing in March before the Higher Administrative Court in Münster, where the party is suing against their observation.
The currently valid report from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution on the radicalism of the AfD dates from spring 2021. Since March 2023 at the latest, according to the “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, internal emails from the Federal Office have mentioned an “AfD follow-up report 2023” that is being worked on. Last In April, a first draft of an outline was circulated in the authority. The document lists the well-known criticism of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of racism and authoritarianism in the AfD. But it also contains a new point under the heading “Development of the party since March 2022″: ” Relationship with Russia”.
The schedule actually stipulated that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should have already completed its new report. According to information from the “SZ”, a corresponding internal agreement was approved last May by the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang (CDU) and his deputy Sinan Selen.
The Federal Office has its own “coordination team” dealing with the AfD. Under Haldenwang, the corresponding department for right-wing extremism has been greatly expanded in recent years.
The appeal hearing should be awaited
Everything should have been finished in December 2023. Only the judiciary apparently slowed down this schedule. The Münster Higher Administrative Court, which still has to decide on the AfD's appeal against its “suspected case” status, has repeatedly postponed its hearing in the matter and has now finally set it for March.
According to the “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, internal emails from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution say that the court’s expected “considerations” should be “taken into account as far as possible” in the new AfD report. According to “SZ”, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution also wants to be able to react if the court has unexpected, new questions. However, if everything remains the same and that the judiciary fundamentally agrees with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution – as it did in the first instance before the Cologne Administrative Court in spring 2022 – nothing would stand in the way of the new report.
At the request of the “SZ”, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) announced on Sunday: “The BfV generally does not take a position on internal work processes within the authority. This does not make any statement as to whether the facts are true or not.”
When the Federal Office presented a comprehensive new report on the AfD or one of its structures in the past, it was to announce a changed classification. In 2019, the AfD was classified as a “test case” for right-wing extremism for the first time, in 2020 the staunch right wing of the party was upgraded to “secure extremist endeavor,” in 2021 the entire party was upgraded to “suspected case,” and in 2023 the Young Alternative was upgraded to “secured extremist endeavor”.
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