AfD classified as ‘extremist’ in Saxony-Anhalt
The regional branch of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the state of Saxony-Anhalt has been classified as an extremist organization by the state’s domestic intelligence agency, just days after the party achieved first place in a state-wide poll.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, claimed to have gathered sufficient evidence to prove several of its members and elected officials are right-wing extremists.
AfD’s regional association in the state had been under investigation for alleged extremism since 2021, but the federal intelligence agency has now received new information to show the party is “not compatible with human dignity, democracy, and the rule of law.”
Saxony-Anhalt is the second state where the AfD’s regional party has been denounced as an extremist organization following findings in Thuringia back in 2021.
The classification provides federal intelligence agents with greater powers to monitor the communications of party officials and members, raising serious questions about civil liberties and democratic norms in Germany.
Such surveillance includes but is not limited to the recruitment and use of informants, the tracking of financial flows, as well as wiretapping, reading, and monitoring the private communications of German citizens.
Nikolaus Kramer, chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, described the move by the intelligence agency as “transparent and a pitiful attempt at denunciation.”
The move comes just days after a poll conducted by INSA for the German tabloid newspaper Bild showed the AfD storming to first place in the state of Saxony-Anhalt with 33 percent of the vote.