The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, or BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence service, has argued that the populist far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is anti-constitutional. It therefore classified the political party as a “suspected case” in 2021.
The party took legal action against this decision at the Cologne Administrative Court, but was unsuccessful. A higher regional court in western Germany has now confirmed that ruling, meaning the AfD may be classified as a “suspected” far-right extremist organization.
The court proceedings have drawn attention to a state organization that acts as an early warning system to detect threats to democracy, and is one of Germany’s most important intelligence agencies. It gathers intelligence while coordinating information gathered by the 16 state-level intelligence agencies.
