Icon: enlarge
Higher Administrative Court of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster
Photo: Ro¼diger Wo¶lk / imago images / Rüdiger Wölk
The AfD has to accept another setback in its legal efforts against possible observation by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster confirmed two decisions from the lower court, according to which the party had already called for so-called interim regulations before a possible observation.
With the regulation, the constitutional protection would not have been able to classify and observe the party as a suspected right-wing extremism case for the time being.
On the other hand, the AfD wanted to prevent the Office for the Protection of the Constitution from announcing that the radical "wing" within the party had around 7,000 members until its dissolution last spring.
The party fears that the announcements by the office will cause irreparable damage in political competition.
The administrative court in Cologne had already rejected the applications.
The OVG followed suit.
In the opinion of the 5th Senate, such so-called hanging resolutions were neither required nor necessary, according to a notification from the OVG.
The resolutions are unassailable.
In the proceedings around the wing, the statement about the number of members of 7,000 has long been known to the public, said the OVG.
If the Federal Office repeats it, the party will not be at a disadvantage.
When asked about the suspected case, the Federal Office had promised not to comment until a decision had been made.
The AfD has to accept that intelligence services are still used to observe party members.
Should the party rightly be classified as a suspected case at the end of an urgent proceeding because the Federal Office has determined efforts against the free-democratic basic order, the OVG sees the danger that this will intensify until then.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is already a suspected case
"The consequences of a failure to observe would be of such importance in view of this basic order that the possible observation of members - especially with the promised exceptions - would have to be accepted until the decision in the urgent procedure," the court said.
Most recently, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony-Anhalt had classified the party as a suspected right-wing extremist.
The move is also being considered at the federal level.
According to information from SPIEGEL, the Federal Ministry of the Interior finally checked how it would position itself to be classified as a suspected case by the Federal Office.
Ref .: 5 B 163/21 and 5 B 175/21
Icon: The mirror
fek / dpa / AFP