German Court Upholds Classification of AfD as Extremist Movement

A German court upheld today, Monday, the classification of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party by the German domestic intelligence agency as an "extremist and suspected movement." According to the German news agency (dpa), the administrative court in Münster ruled in favor of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), supporting a decision made in 2022 by a lower court in Cologne. The AfD was established in 2013, and its platform has focused from the beginning on opposing immigrants and strongly criticized then-Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to welcome a large number of refugees and migrants in 2015. The AfD has recently shown strong results in opinion polls in Germany amid increasing dissatisfaction with the three-party coalition government. An investigative report published by the platform "Correctiv" revealed that party members participated in a meeting held last November aimed at deporting millions of migrants, including individuals with German citizenship and asylum seekers. The investigation sparked massive public protests denouncing the rise of the far-right in Germany.