By officially classing the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as ‘right-wing extremists’, the German establishment may have scored an own goal – or even shot itself in the foot. The domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), announced its decision today after keeping the insurgent party under close observation – including by state spies – for years.
But the AfD is no tiny sect of secretive neo-Nazis. It is a legal and open party, founded in 2013, that no fewer than 20.8 per cent of Germans voted for in this year’s general election. Now that the centre-right CDU/CSU and the centre-left SPD are forming a new coalition government together under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the AfD is the third largest party – and is Germany’s official parliamentary opposition.
A ban on the AfD will not necessarily follow automatically
The AfD has been under official state investigation for some time by authorities alarmed by the party’s rise, which is largely attributed to popular resentment of mass migration and fears of more Islamist terrorist atrocities like those which took place around last Christmas.
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