The far-right alternative party for Germany filed a lawsuit on Monday by contesting Germany’s Domestic Intelligence Agency’s decision to classify the party as an extremist organization.
Spokesman for the Cologne Administrative Court said the lawsuit and a corresponding emergency petition had been presented, and that both would be analyzed as soon as the BFV domestic intelligence agency confirmed that it had been notified.
The extremist classification announced on Friday allows the spy agency to intensify AFD monitoring, for example, recruiting informants and intercepting party communications.
The report of 1,100 pages of the agency’s experts, which should not be publicized to the public, concluded that AFD is a racist and anti -mirror organization.
AFD was second in a parliamentary election in February, with almost 21% of the votes, making it the largest opposition party in Parliament. Centro-right leader Friedrich Merz is expected to take over as a chancellor on Tuesday, ahead of a coalition that includes the center-left SPD.
Germany has strict laws against political extremism, according to what the authorities have long regarded as a special responsibility, resulting from the country’s Nazi past, to protect democracy.
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AFD says its designation as an extremist is a politically motivated attempt to discredit it and criminalize it.
The new government will look at whether to launch an attempted total ban on the party, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil said last week.
Senior members of the Trump government in the US criticized AFD classification as an extremist, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that Germany should reverse the course. Billionaire Elon Musk, ally close to President Donald Trump, has campaigned for AFD.
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On Monday, Moscow joined Washington to criticize AFD extremist classification, which opposes German military support to Ukraine in the war against Russia.
“The European political scenario itself is now full of various restrictive measures against political forces and individuals whose worldview does not fit the dominant current,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
