The AFP is not extreme right by any historical measure but it’s pretty far right compared to the hot mess Germany has right now. After enough peace loving Muslim refugees murder people in the street with the government refusing to recognize the problem, the people will eventually vote for whoever they think will keep them and their family safe.
AfD (not AFP) wants only "ethnic Germans" to have full rights as citizens while other citizens will be discriminated against. Of course you think AfD is not extreme and that is what you want for USA, going by your posts.
That party is far right and officially ruled by a court (May 2024, and 2021) to be under suspicion of being extremist. That lets the German intelligence agency continue to surveil and investigate members
[From May 2024]>>>The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is officially suspected of extremism, a German court has ruled.
The move, which upholds a lower-court ruling the party had challenged, means intelligence services can continue to monitor AfD activities and communications. [emphasis added]
The party was founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic group objecting to German-backed EU bailouts for southern Europe.
But as refugee numbers rose after 2015, the AfD morphed into a strident, ever-more radical anti-migration force.
Today influential blocs within the AfD hold ethno-nationalist beliefs that define anyone with a migrant heritage as not "properly German" - even if they hold German citizenship.
Because of Germany's experience of dictatorship and oppression in the 20th Century, there are high legal hurdles to state surveillance of any political party.
But on Monday the court in Münster ruled that there was reason to believe that "at least a significant part of the AfD" aimed to "grant German citizens with a migration background only a legally devalued status".
In other words, the court suspects large parts of the AfD of wanting to create a two-tier society, where people judged to be "ethnically German" would have more rights than people whose families originally came from abroad. [emphasis added]
This, according to the German constitution, would be illegal discrimination.
Monday's court decision is a blow for the AfD, but the German government sees it as a victory. "Today's ruling shows that we are a democracy that can be defended," said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
It shows that the German state has the tools needed to protect democracy from threats from within, she added. ...<<<
The ruling means intelligence services can now monitor the communications of the far-right party.
www.bbc.com
[From May 2024]>>>The designation [suspected extremist status] could allow Germany's intelligence agency to surveil and investigate members of the far-right party. The AfD says it plans to appeal the ruling.
A higher regional court in western Germany rejected on Monday an appeal by the
Alternative for Germany (AfD) party against its classification as a "suspected" far-right extremist organization.
The judges at the court in Münster said the
designation was appropriate and did not violate the constitution or European law.
"The court finds there is sufficient evidence that the AfD pursues goals that run against the human dignity of certain groups and against democracy," they wrote.
"There are grounds to suspect at least part of the party wants to accord second-rank status to German citizens with a migration background." [emphasis added]...<<<
The designation could allow Germany's intelligence agency to surveil and investigate members of the far-right party. The AfD says it plans to appeal the ruling.
www.dw.com
[March 2024] >>>Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expecting a verdict in its legal fight against the country's domestic intelligence service (BfV). Will it be placed under investigation as a suspected right-wing extremist group? [Added: Yes, see link above]
For years now, the political party
Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), have been meeting in court on a regular basis. At issue is whether the BfV can legally investigate the party on suspicion of anti-constitutional activities.
Their next face-off will take place at the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Münster on March 12th and 13th.
The AfD is challenging a 2021 ruling that placed it under investigation as a suspected right-wing extremist party. That designation came after the BfV, which previously deemed the AfD a so-called "case of interest," found the party had become increasingly radicalized. The prior label had meant that only publicly available information could be evaluated in determining the AfD's potential threat to democracy.
At that time, the domestic intelligence service could do no more than anyone else: read articles in newspapers and online portals, watch TV reports and videos on the Internet, and listen to speeches by AfD members in front of parliament and at party congresses. But what the BfV observed was enough for it to reclassify the AfD as a "suspected case."
That classification enables authorities to use secret methods to monitor the party and its members, for instance by recruiting AfD members and individuals associated with it as confidential informants, or "trusted persons." Under some circumstances, telecommunications may also be monitored.
A successful AfD appeal at the Higher Administrative Court would put an end to such surveillance. [Added: unsuccessfull, see link above]
Meanwhile, the BfV intends to go even further by classifying the AfD as a "proven right-wing extremist" group at the federal level, rather than leaving it a subject of extended investigation to verify suspicion. [Added: apperently still only "suspicion" in the appeal]
Regional AfD chapters in the states of Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt have already been reclassified as such [proven right-wing extremist]. [emphasis added] ...<<<
Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expecting a verdict in its legal fight against the country's domestic intelligence service (BfV). Will it be placed under investigation as a suspected right-wing extremist group?
www.dw.com
