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The Office for the Protection of the Constitution can classify the AfD youth organization as definitely extremist.
According to the Hessian party leader, four of its members sit in the Wiesbaden state parliament.
Cologne/Wiesbaden - The nationwide 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 according to a court decision.
According to AfD state leader Robert Lambrou and a party spokesman, there are also four members of the Junge Alternative (JA) in the Hessian state parliament: Gerhard Bärsch and Pascal Schleich from the Vogelsberg district and Jochen Roos and Maximilian Müger from the Offenbach district.
“All four are ordinary members of the JA.
None of them are on the state executive board,” Lambrou told the German Press Agency in Wiesbaden on Tuesday.
The Hessischer Rundfunk had previously reported on it.
The Cologne Administrative Court had decided that the BfV could classify and monitor the AfD's youth organization as a confirmed extremist effort.
This was justified, among other things, by the fact that the JA represents a ethnic concept of ethnic origin and by its “connections to connections that are classified as anti-constitutional, in particular the Identitarian Movement”.
The decision is not legally binding (ref: 13 L 1124/23).
AfD and JA can lodge a complaint with the North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court.
The Hessen correctional institution is an object of observation by the Hessian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV), as can be seen from the chapter “Right-wing extremism” in the most recent report for the protection of the constitution for 2022.
AfD state chief Lambrou told the dpa that he was not commenting on the Cologne court decision because it was not legally binding and a complaint was possible: “This is an ongoing process.” The JA is legally a separate association, but “in a practical sense it is an integral part the AfD,” added Lambrou on the sidelines of the Hessian state parliament session on Tuesday.
The JA announced at the federal level that it would examine “legal steps” against the Cologne court decision.
This does not come as a surprise: “The political will to destroy from the very top against the AfD and the clubs and organizations associated with it has long been obvious.” dpa