Intelligence Blow: What’s Behind Labeling AfD as an Extremist Group?

Within the corridors of German intelligence, the focus has shifted beyond traditional threats like terrorism and organized crime. The greater concern now is the “creeping threat” of the far-right—no longer hidden behind populist rhetoric, but openly present in parliaments, on the streets, and across expanding media networks throughout Europe.

A Defining Shift

On May 2, 2025, German authorities escalated their actions against far-right extremism. The intelligence agency officially brands the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “far-right extremist”—a move marking a significant turning point in the state’s response to one of the country’s most prominent opposition parties.

“The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order,” the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement.

This classification enables security services to employ surveillance tools that were previously off-limits, including wiretapping, monitoring party members, and deploying undercover agents within the organization.

The move is part of what the state considers an “open confrontation” with the growing threats to democracy and the constitutional order posed by far-right parties, especially the AfD.

German intelligence sees its struggle with the AfD as just one chapter in a broader European battle. The party, which began as a protest movement against refugee policies, now poses a direct challenge to Germany’s post-WWII democratic order.

The decision followed a comprehensive review and a 1,100-page report. Acting Federal Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser stated it was “a clear and unambiguous decision” made with “no political influence whatsoever.”

In contrast, AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla dismissed the designation as “clearly politically motivated” and a “serious blow to German democracy.” They claimed the party was being “defamed and criminalized” ahead of a potential change in government. Deputy party chairman Stefan Brandner called the move “utter nonsense” with “no legal basis.”

In the February 2025 federal elections, the AfD won 152 of 630 seats (20.8% of the vote) finishing second after the conservatives led by Friedrich Merz. Despite scandals involving some of its leadership, including the conviction of one member for using banned Nazi slogans, the party doubled its vote share in under four years.

After their election success, AfD leaders said the so-called firewall that had prevented other parties from working with them should end.

“Anyone who erects firewalls will get grilled behind them,” said Chrupalla.

Foreign Support

Despite facing intense domestic backlash, the AfD has received support from prominent figures outside Germany. Just nine days before the federal elections, party co-leader Weidel met in Munich with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, a right-leaning politician who rejected the idea of political firewalls and warned that freedom of expression is in decline across Europe.

In a striking development, billionaire Elon Musk conducted a lengthy interview with Weidel on X, during which he urged Germans to vote for the AfD. Musk continued to express support after the elections, calling any potential ban on the party an extreme attack on democracy.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also voiced concern, stating that labeling the AfD as extremist gives German intelligence new powers to monitor the opposition, warning that such actions could amount to “tyranny in disguise.”

Although the intelligence agency itself does not have the authority to ban a political party, its classification could pave the way for the Bundestag, the government, or the Constitutional Court to take such a step.

Under Germany's Basic Law (a constitution adopted in 1949 four years after the fall of Hitler's Nazi regime) parties that “deliberately undermine the functioning of Germany's free democratic basic order” can be banned if they act in a “militant and aggressive way.”

Calls to pursue this path have grown louder. Bundestag Vice President Andrea Lindholz said the AfD should not be treated like other parties, especially regarding its leadership of parliamentary committees.

Deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party, Serpil Midyatli, declared that “a ban must come,” emphasizing that the framers of the German constitution intended to protect democracy from falling into the abyss again.

Daniel Gunther, Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, also called for banning procedures to begin, describing the AfD as “a threat to social cohesion.”

In contrast, Saxony’s Minister-President Michael Kretschmer stressed that “defending democracy starts at the heart of society,” warning against relying solely on state mechanisms.

The AfD is expected to challenge the designation in court. If the label of “far-right extremist” is upheld, intelligence agencies would gain broader authority to monitor and infiltrate the party, potentially complicating its political future, even as it continues to perform strongly in opinion polls.

As the debate intensifies over the legality of a potential ban, Germany finds itself facing a difficult democratic test: how to safeguard its constitutional order and social fabric without undermining fundamental freedoms such as political participation and freedom of expression.

Founding and Ideology

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) was officially founded in 2013 by German politician Alexander Gauland and journalist Bernd Lucke. At the founding conference, Bernd Lucke, entrepreneur Frauke Petry, and Konrad Adam were elected as party spokespeople.

Initially, the party was classified as a right-wing conservative movement combining economic liberalism with cultural nationalism, emphasizing the protection of German sovereignty and identity. Early party leaders described it as a conservative-liberal project critical of European integration and opposed to the euro currency.

However, following the 2015 refugee crisis, the AfD shifted toward more hardline positions, particularly against immigration and Islam. This shift prompted the departure of founding figure Bernd Lucke and other moderates, who objected to what they described as the party's “anti-Western and pro-Russian” orientation.

In subsequent years, the party developed stronger ties with far-right nationalist groups such as the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA), the Identitarian Movement, and Neonazis, deepening internal divisions over how to handle these affiliations.

In 2020, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the party’s “Der Flügel” right-wing faction as extremist. By 2021, the entire AfD was placed under surveillance as a “suspected case,” a controversial move especially as federal elections approached.

Despite legal challenges, German courts upheld the intelligence agency’s decisions in 2022 and 2024, concluding that there were “sufficient factual indications” of anti-constitutional activities within the party.

Anti-Islam Stance

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party holds a particularly hostile stance toward Muslims, claiming that German national identity is under threat due to European integration and the growing number of Muslim migrants and refugees in the country.

In March 2016, former party leader Frauke Petry voiced this view, stating that large-scale immigration, particularly from Islamic countries, would “change our culture.” She emphasized that any demographic shift should be the result of a broad democratic decision, not unilateral moves such as then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s borders without parliamentary or public consultation.

In its political platform, the AfD calls for an end to what it terms “mass migration,” advocating only for the admission of a limited number of highly skilled migrants who can integrate and speak German fluently. The party also promotes encouraging higher birth rates among native Germans rather than relying on immigration to address demographic decline.

Culturally, the AfD rejects multiculturalism, declaring it a failed model in Germany. It supports banning the niqab, prohibiting the Islamic call to prayer in public spaces, and opposes the construction of new minarets. The party also calls for ending foreign funding of mosques and imposing strict government oversight on imams.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric intensified during Frauke Petry’s leadership, during which she welcomed comparisons between the AfD and the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement. In 2016, the party’s electoral platform explicitly stated that “Islam does not belong to Germany,” describing the growing Muslim population as a threat to the state, society, and German values.

The party has also launched campaigns referencing the far-right Eurabia conspiracy theory, which suggests a Muslim takeover of Europe through mass migration and demographic change.

The AfD also calls for a ban on halal slaughter in Germany, including the import and sale of meat prepared according to Islamic law. It demands the mandatory stunning of animals before slaughter—a requirement that conflicts with both Islamic and Jewish religious practices, which mandate that animals must be fully conscious at the time of slaughter.

A 2021 study by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, commissioned by the German Islam Conference (DIK) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, estimated that the number of Muslims with migrant backgrounds in Germany ranges between 5.3 million and 5.6 million, accounting for approximately 6.4 to 6.7 percent of the total population.

The Party, Jews, and ‘Antisemitism’

While leaders of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have repeatedly denied accusations of “antisemitism,” statements and positions by several of its members and candidates have revealed anti-Jewish sentiments.

A 2019 study conducted by the German institute Forsa found that 15 percent of AfD supporters agreed with the statement that the Holocaust was a “hoax.”

Although Wilhelm von Gottberg, a former AfD member of parliament, made controversial remarks about the Holocaust in 2001—twelve years before the party was founded—his statements continued to haunt him. Citing Italian fascist Mario Consoli, he described the Holocaust as a “myth” that should be kept “off-limits to free historical inquiry.”

In 2017, the party faced a major scandal when it was revealed that ten of its members were part of a closed Facebook group called The Patriots, which contained antisemitic and pro-Nazi content. One post that drew particular outrage featured Anne Frank’s face on a pizza box labeled “fresh from the oven.”

Annelies Marie Frank, a German-born Jewish girl, gained recognition for the diary she kept while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, offering a poignant account of daily life from her family's concealed attic in Amsterdam.

Although some officials claimed they had been added to the group without their knowledge, Bundestag member Stefan Protschka openly affirmed his membership, stating: “I am a member of this group because I also see myself as a patriot.”

A 2019 report by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution warned that statements by prominent AfD leaders such as Alexander Gauland and Bjorn Hocke contributed to downplaying the Holocaust and distorting reassessments of the Nazi era. The report described this as “alignment with far-right extremist currents,” warning that it could lead to “denial of guilt for the war and the Holocaust.”

Official concerns have deepened over time. In 2023, Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism, stated that the AfD “tolerates antisemitism,” accusing its top leadership of Holocaust denial and promoting hate speech.

In 2024, Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, expressed concern that the party “might deliberately act against Jewish life if it aligns with its ideological agenda,” and described it as offering “a haven for antisemitism.”

Separately, a 2021 study by the American Jewish Committee concluded that “antisemitism is an integral part of the AfD’s platform.” It noted that the party leads “targeted campaigns” against prominent Jewish figures, and that hostility toward “Israel,” downplaying Holocaust atrocities, and promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories are central features of its political rhetoric.