German interior minister: AfD still under observation after ruling

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Friday he is maintaining the observation of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party by the domestic intelligence service following a court decision on the classification.

The ruling stating that the intelligence service may not classify the AfD as a “confirmed” right-wing extremist party clearly states that there are tendencies within the party directed against the free democratic basic order, though this is not characteristic of the party as a whole, the conservative politician said on the television channel Die Welt.

“Therefore, it remains the case that the AfD is a case for observation,” Dobrindt said.

Regarding the question of what specific intelligence measures exist against the AfD, Dobrindt said he could not make any statements on this, as intelligence measures are, of course, secret.

The deputy parliamentary group leader for the AfD, Markus Frohnmaier, had earlier called on the Interior Ministry on the same channel to “immediately cease all measures against the AfD.”

He said that the court’s decision makes it clear that his party has been unjustly persecuted: “I believe this ruling shows that we have really been exonerated here.”

The Administrative Court of Cologne decided on Thursday that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as the domestic intelligence agency is officially known, may not classify and label the AfD as confirmed right-wing extremist for the time being.

According to the court, there is sufficient certainty that tendencies directed against the free democratic basic order are being developed within the AfD, but it is not characterized in such a way that a constitutional hostility can be established in the party’s overall image, the court said.