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AfD boss Meuthen at the party conference in November 2020
Photo:
Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
It was a last-ditch effort.
On Monday, the AfD sent a "declaration on the German state people and German identity".
It says that the party "unconditionally acknowledges the German people as the sum of all persons who have German citizenship."
Everyone, regardless of their ethnic and cultural background or the date of their naturalization, is "just as German before the law as the descendant of a family that has lived in Germany for centuries."
Completely new tones from the far right.
The declaration was signed by all top AfD officials in the federal government and the state leaders, including the Völkische figurehead, Björn Höcke.
However, the declaration was not intended for the members, only very few of the officials who otherwise needed to be informed published it on social networks.
The actual addressee: the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The AfD wanted to escape the threat of observation.
The maneuver did not help, the office will possibly classify the party as a right-wing extremist "suspected case" as early as next week - and thus make telephone monitoring, observation and the use of informants possible.
This is likely to become a problem, especially for those party members who are police officers, teachers or other officials.
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