German intelligence agency temporarily withdraws assessment that AfD party is extremist

Germany's domestic intelligence service has temporarily withdrawn its classification of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a "proven extremist right-wing party" while it awaits a decision from a court to which the party appealed the classification.

AfD co-chairs Tino Krupala and Alice Weidel today described the party's temporary suspension of its classification as its "partial victory" over the intelligence services.

The suspension of the qualification will remain in effect until the Cologne Administrative Court rules on the AfD's appeal against the decision of the Federal Security Service (BfV), the court said. It has not been announced when the court will issue a decision.

The practical consequence of the suspension is that the BfV will remove the statement from its website dated May 2 containing this classification. In addition, the increased monitoring of the AfD party that this classification allows cannot be carried out.

Last Friday's announcement of the new categorization of the AfD, which came in second in the recent parliamentary elections, came as a bombshell just days before the inauguration of the new conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

This decision caused strong political tensions, especially in relations with the administration of US President Donald Trump, who supported the AfD.

The BfV intelligence service based its assessment on an internal report of more than 1.000 pages, prepared over years. It concludes that the AfD's ideology devalues ​​entire groups of the German population and "harms their human dignity", which, it says, is incompatible with the basic democratic order.

This new assessment has also reignited the debate about a possible ban on the party, which was formed in 2013.

The Cologne Administrative Court already approved the BfV's initial decision to label the AfD party as suspicious of extremism in 2022.