German court to rule on ‘extremist’ label for AfD

A German court is due to rule this week on whether security services can treat the far-right Alternative for Germany and its youth wing as suspected extremist organisations, a decision that could cost the party dearly in upcoming European elections.
If the higher administrative court in Muenster confirms a lower court finding, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), tasked with scrutinising threats to Germany’s constitutional order, will retain the power to deploy the full range of intelligence tools against the party.
They could be anything from tapping phones to recruiting informants inside a party whose leaders have dismissed citizens of foreign ethnic backgrounds as “passport Germans”.
The party, which has 78 of the 736 seats in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, maintains that it is a democratic, non-extremist formation. Regional branches of the party have already been formally declared extremist threats.