The Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies AfD as a suspicious object

Created: 06/16/2022Updated: 06/16/2022, 16:54

Boris Pistorius speaks at a press conference at the end of the Interior Ministers' Conference (IMK).

© Daniel Löb/dpa/picture archive

The AfD has been classified as a suspicious object by the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

According to a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, the AfD was classified accordingly in May of this year.

Hanover - Previously in Lower Saxony, for example, the youth organization of the AfD was classified as an object of observation - this is to be classified even higher than a suspected object.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the AfD as a party as a suspected case in the area of ​​right-wing extremism.

Witthaut explained in a statement that the former "wing" members of the party had seeped into the party structures of the AfD with their ideas and objectives.

In addition, the party in the federal state has contacts, references and connections to right-wing extremist organizations and protagonists.

In addition to the AfD, there is another new object of suspicion, this is about the so-called anti-democratic and/or security-endangering delegitimization of the state.

These include corona deniers and conspiracy theorists.

This classification was already made in May 2021.

Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) emphasized that right-wing extremism is still the greatest threat to democracy, despite a slight drop in the number of people.

According to this, 1730 people are assigned to right-wing extremism in Lower Saxony - 20 fewer than a year earlier.

The number of violent left-wing extremists in the state remained largely constant at 800.

The Salafist potential stagnated at around 900 people last year - the trend is currently slightly declining.

dpa