The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the AfD as a "suspected case".
This means that the party is under nationwide surveillance.
Update from March 3, 5 p.m
.: According to consistent reports, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the entire AfD as a suspected case.
But what does that mean for the party in the super election year 2021?
Opposite the
Watson
portal
, the political scientist Oskar Niedermayer provides information.
The observation by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution will have a negative impact on the party, the expert said.
Right-wing supporters continued to vote for the party, but “other, more bourgeois protest voters who have no right-wing extremist attitudes will increasingly turn away from the AfD,” notes the political scientist.
Despite the possible decline in voters, the AfD will remain part of the party landscape.
“The AfD already has a fairly solid voter potential, especially in the new federal states.
The AfD will not go away, "said Niedermayer to
Watson
.
However, the political scientist does not believe in great successes of the AfD at the federal level.
The party will not repeat the successful period between 2015 and 2016 at the federal level.
Niedermayer “does not assume that she will come back to such heights”.
First report from March 3
: Cologne - The new phase in the relationship between the AfD * and the German constitutional protection has been dragging on since January.
At the beginning of the year, the classification of the “Alternative for Germany” was expected as a suspected case.
The party had prevented a press conference and public announcements through several urgent motions and lawsuits.
AfD a "right-wing extremist suspected case": the protection of the Constitution ranks the whole party despite a lawsuit
But now the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has decided.
The AfD is being observed nationwide as a "suspected right-wing extremist case".
Media reports unanimously that BfV President Thomas Haldenweg informed the heads of the state constitutional protection authorities in a video conference on Wednesday.
So far, the party has only been considered a "test case".
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is now allowed to use all intelligence services to control the AfD.
This includes telephone and mail monitoring and the use of informants.
Right-wing extremist?
AfD report has almost 1000 pages - documents checked in the Ministry of the Interior
"With a view to the ongoing proceedings and out of respect for the court, the BfV does not speak publicly on this matter," a spokesman for the authorities avoided
a denial
when
asked by
the
Tagesschau
.
However, there is no official confirmation either.
The AfD's lawsuit in January led to the protection of the Constitution making a standstill promise.
However, the Cologne administrative court has extensive documents to assess the AfD.
A working group of the protection of the constitution had drawn up an opinion on the AfD.
It has around 1000 pages, reports the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
.
It contains collected statements from AfD functionaries at party conferences, interviews, election campaign appearances and on social media.
In addition, the experts list and evaluate contacts and connections between AfD politicians and anti-constitutional networks and people.
This justification for the AfD assessment has now been checked again by lawyers in the Ministry of the Interior *.
Alice Weidel does not accept AfD observation and wants to complain - "The protection of the Constitution acts purely politically"
AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel does not simply want to accept the classification.
"The protection of the constitution acts on the question of the AfD purely politically," she told the German press agency on Wednesday.
Especially in the super election year 2021, the decision is "particularly noteworthy," she adds.
Weidel announces that he will take legal action now.
If necessary up to the highest authority.
"I am sure that such a classification of the AfD will not stand before the Federal Constitutional Court," she says with conviction.
Assessment of the AfD: the role of the "wing" is decisive - the protection of the Constitution still sees influence
The role of the ethnic-national “wing” within the AfD is decisive for the protection of the constitution.
This has meanwhile been dissolved by the party.
And Andreas Kalbitz, who was “proven right-wing extremist” according to the protection of the constitution, was thrown out.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution nevertheless assumes that the “wing” continues to play a significant role within the AfD.
In research, this is referred to as a so-called "effervescent tablet theory".
If a tablet dissolves in water and is no longer visible, it does not lose its effectiveness.
The AfD is now considered a "suspected case of right-wing extremism".
Nevertheless, according to
ARD
,
the Federal Office promised to
observe the party as a whole only to a limited extent.
MEPs at European, federal or state level should therefore not be monitored.
At least as long as the court is still examining two urgent applications from the AfD.
List of rubric lists: © Rolf Vennenbernd / picture alliance / dpa
