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The AfD is defending itself against statements in the 2022 Constitutional Protection Report. The party wants to go to court to have passages about right-wing extremist members deleted.
Without success.
Berlin - The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) does not have to change its statements about the proportion of right-wing extremist members of the AfD in the 2022 Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution report for the time being.
The Berlin Administrative Court decided this in an expedited procedure, as a spokesman announced on Wednesday.
According to the Federal Constitutional Protection Act, the ministry is entitled to inform the public about efforts against the free democratic basic order, as long as there are sufficiently important factual indications for this, it said.
The report said that the party “currently has an estimated extremist potential of around 10,000 people” or “30 to 40% of all AfD members”.
(Af.: VG 1 L 340/23)
The party wanted to temporarily prohibit the BMI from making this statement in an expedited procedure.
She doesn't think it's sustainable.
The relevant passage should be deleted from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for the time being.
According to the court spokesman, after the defeat in the first instance, the AfD has already filed a complaint with the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court.
According to the court, the party sees its freedom of activity violated.
The AfD also argued that the depiction violated the principle of objectivity and the duty of neutrality.
From the court's point of view, however, the reporting is permissible and does not violate the requirements of state neutrality and objectivity.
There are “actual indications of sufficient weight for a potential for right-wing extremism among part of the AfD’s membership,” it said.
The report correctly reflects the concept of right-wing extremism in relation to the fact that, according to right-wing extremist ideas, belonging to an ethnic group, nation or “race” determines the value of a person and such an ethno-racially defined “national community” represents the central values of the liberal democratic movement Disregard the basic order.
The BMI correctly made this assignment based on the strength of the former “wing” of the AfD and the network around the Thuringian AfD state and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke.
The alleged dissolution of the “wing” is not important because the potential has not disappeared.
The estimate of the number of people should not be viewed as arbitrary.
For the AfD, it is the second defeat in court within a short period of time.
On Tuesday, the Cologne Administrative Court announced that the classification of the youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) as a confirmed extremist effort by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) was legal.
The decision is not legally binding.
(Az: 13 L 1124/23) dpa