Last updated: 12.12.2023, 07:09 a.m.
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View of the party logo at an AfD national party conference. © Carsten Koall/dpa/Symbolbild
The North Rhine-Westphalian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD's youth organization, Junge Alternative (JA), as a suspected right-wing extremist case in North Rhine-Westphalia. "There are condensed indications that the Young Alternative does not play by democratic rules, but prefers its own right-wing extremist rules," Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) announced on Tuesday.
Düsseldorf - The NRW Office for the Protection of the Constitution is therefore monitoring the Young Alternative from now on.
In recent years, right-wing extremist positions have become dominant among the Young Alternative in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to Reul. There is "comprehensive cooperation with numerous actors of the right-wing extremist current of the New Right." The AfD's junior members in North Rhine-Westphalia are promoting the "Identitarian Movement" and its successor organizations on social media. In addition, people with a right-wing extremist biography are active in the JA NRW.
Since 2019, the state association of the Young Alternative in North Rhine-Westphalia has ideologically swung to the political course of the federal association of the JA, the interior minister continued. This is characterized by a "völkisch-ethnic understanding of the people and xenophobia". The JA NRW also represents positions that violate the guarantee of human dignity.
In the case of a suspected case, there are "sufficiently weighty factual indications" of anti-constitutional tendencies. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution can then evaluate and store personal data and, under strict conditions, use intelligence means, such as observation or recruitment of informants. Dpa