MUENSTER, Germany
\nA German court is due to rule this week on whether security services can treat the far-right Alternative for Germany and its youth wing as suspected extremist organizations, a decision that could cost the party dearly in upcoming European elections.
\nIf the higher administrative court in Muenster confirms a lower court finding, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), tasked with scrutinizing threats to Germany\u2019s constitutional order, will retain the power to deploy the full range of intelligence tools against the party.
\nThey could be anything from tapping phones to recruiting informants inside a party whose leaders have dismissed citizens of foreign ethnic backgrounds as \u201cpassport Germans\u201d or complained about \u201cfecund Africans\u201d flooding Germany.
\nThe party, which has 78 of the 736 seats in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, maintains that it is a democratic, non-extremist formation. Regional branches of the party have already been formally declared extremist threats.
\nThe case\u2019s title \u201cAfD versus Federal Republic of Germany\u201d hints at its significance for a country that has built its post-war reputation building a model democracy with strong safeguards against extremism now seeing a far-right party polling as much of a third of the vote in some regions.
\nA finding that it is suspected extremist could hurt the party in western Germany, where it is less well established and voters are traditionally more cautious about parties that are labelled extremist.
\nIt could also complicate dealmaking on a European level: potential partners, including France\u2019s Marine Le Pen, have warned that overt racism could make it hard for her National Rally party to work with them.
\nThe BfV first began treating the party as a possible extremist organization in 2021. A lower court rejected the AfD\u2019s appeal against this the following year.
\nThe court in Muenster, in whose jurisdiction the BfV\u2019s headquarters in Cologne lies, is expected to issue a definitive ruling on the facts on Tuesday after two days of hearings.
\nThe party is now polling in first place in several of the poorer, post-industrial eastern states where its anti-establishment, anti-immigration message is particularly resonant.
\nBut the party has also faced mounting pressure, especially after the revelation that senior figures had attended a meeting where the \u201cremigration\u201d of \u201cunintegrated\u201d German citizens was discussed \u2014 widely seen as code for the expulsion of people of non-ethnic-German descent.
\nThat triggered weeks of street protests and even statements of concern from titans of German corporate life, normally exceptionally reticent on matters of daily politics.
\nThe party has slipped in the polls slightly, though it remains second on around 19 percent, behind the opposition conservatives but well ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s Social Democrats on 15 percent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MUENSTER, Germany A German court is due to rule this week on whether security services can treat the far-right Alternative for Germany and its youth wing as suspected extremist organizations, a decision that could cost the party dearly in upcoming European elections. If the higher administrative court in Muenster confirms a lower court finding, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-393363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n