As of: February 6, 2024, 2:18 p.m
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A member of the “Junge Alternative” (JA) carries a flag with the organization’s logo at an election campaign event.
© Alex Talash/dpa
The AfD's youth organization, the Junge Alternative, has been classified differently by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2023.
According to a court order, the treatment is legal.
Cologne - The classification of the AfD's youth organization as a confirmed extremist effort by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) is legal.
The Cologne Administrative Court published a corresponding decision dated February 5th on Tuesday.
The decision is not yet legally binding.
The AfD and its youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) can lodge a complaint against this with the North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court (Az: 13 L 1124/23).
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution had previously classified the youth organization as a suspected case.
A lawsuit against this decision was rejected by the Cologne Administrative Court in March 2022.
The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) will deal with this question in the next instance in mid-March.
In April 2023, the BfV announced that the observation of suspected cases had revealed indications that the AfD youth organization had gathered evidence of efforts against the free democratic basic order.
Therefore, the JA is classified and treated as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort.
The AfD and the youth organization filed a lawsuit against this in June 2023 and granted an urgent application against the classification.
The Cologne Administrative Court has now rejected the urgent application.
In the justification for rejecting the urgent application, the administrative court writes that the Federal Constitutional Protection Act applies to the applicants.
The observation by the BfV does not represent a measure “that is directed against the existence of the AfD, but rather serves to clarify whether a party - or in this case its youth organization - is pursuing anti-constitutional goals,” said the administrative court.
The admissibility of such information is presupposed by the constitution.
In fact, the JA is definitely an extremist effort.
“The actual evidence of anti-constitutional efforts has become certain since the court’s ruling of March 8, 2022, which dealt with the classification of the JA as a suspected case.”
The youth organization continues to represent a ethnic concept of ethnicity.
The exclusion of “ethnic strangers” is a central idea of the correctional institution and therefore a violation of human dignity, explains the court in the 70-page reasoning for its decision.
Furthermore, the Basic Law does not recognize a concept of the people that is based exclusively on ethnic categories.
“In addition, there is ongoing massive anti-foreigner and especially anti-Islam and anti-Muslim agitation at the JA.
Asylum seekers and migrants are generally suspected and disparaged.
Immigrants are generally described as parasites and criminals or are otherwise despised and their human dignity is therefore disregarded,” writes the administrative court.
The JA acts against the principles of democracy at all political levels.
The Federal Republic of Germany is equated with dictatorial regimes, “particularly the Nazi regime and the GDR”.
The youth organization's connections with organizations classified as anti-constitutional, such as the Identitarian Movement, would also reinforce the suspicions.
From the point of view of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), the fact that the Cologne administrative court confirmed the classification of the JA as right-wing extremist shows that the instruments of the constitutional state to protect democracy are working.
“Today’s decision clearly states that we are dealing with massive contempt for humanity, with racism, with hatred against Muslims and with attacks on our democracy,” said the minister on Tuesday, according to her ministry.
“We will continue to take action against this using the means of the rule of law,” she added.
The President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, sees his assessment strengthened by the rejection of an urgent application from the AfD and its party youth.
“I welcome the decision of the Cologne Administrative Court,” Haldenwang told the German Press Agency.
“This confirms the BfV’s classification of the Junge Alternative as a proven extremist effort.”
On March 12th and 13th, the NRW-OVG, based in Münster, will negotiate on AfD matters.
The subject is the classification of the so-called AfD wing, which has since been dissolved, as a suspected case and as a confirmed extremist endeavor as well as the classification of the Junge Alternative as a suspected case and the classification of the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case.
The current decision from Cologne on the Young Alternative is not yet on the administrative judges’ agenda.
North Rhine-Westphalia is responsible because the Federal Office has its headquarters in Cologne.
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The AfD state associations in Saxony and Thuringia are classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the constitutional protection offices there and are being monitored; the AfD in Brandenburg is a suspected case.
New state parliaments will be elected in all three federal states in the fall.
For more than three weeks, people across Germany have been taking to the streets against the right.
According to police figures, last weekend alone there were more than 480,000 people who demonstrated for democracy and tolerance.
“For survivors of the Holocaust, this verdict, alongside the numerous demonstrations in German cities, is another important signal that people in Germany have understood the threat posed by the AfD and that democracy is beginning to defend itself against its enemies.
An application for a ban against the Junge Alternative with its ideology of hate is now what must follow this verdict,” said the vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, Christoph Heubner.
dpa