Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has been officially designated a ‘proven right-wing extremist’ party and ‘not compatible’ with a free democracy by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency over the weekend. The decision grants the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) expanded surveillance powers to investigate the party, which currently holds the largest support base among German parties, according to every credible pollster.
The BfV cited court decisions in two German regions in recent years that detailed party efforts to undermine the democratic order. ‘The prevailing understanding of ethnicity and descent in the party is not compatible with the free democratic basic order,’ the agency stated. ‘It aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society, to expose them to unequal treatment that is not in conformity with the constitution, and thus to assign them a legally devalued status. Specifically, the AfD, for example, does not consider German citizens with a migration history from Muslim countries to be equal members of the German people as ethnically defined by the party.’
In a joint statement, party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla described the decision as a ‘severe blow to German democracy,’ adding that the AfD would continue to legally challenge what they called defamatory actions that threaten democratic integrity.
The move has drawn criticism from several quarters, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and members of the Trump administration. In a post on X, Orbán reaffirmed his support for the AfD, stating that Weidel and her party ‘can count on us’. On 12 February—eleven days before Germany’s early elections—Orbán became the first foreign leader to receive Weidel in an official visit, effectively breaking the AfD’s international isolation. At the time, he declared that Weidel and the AfD represented ‘the future of Germany’.
The German government’s treatment of the AfD was also a central theme in US Vice President JD Vance’s Munich speech, which seen by many as a turning point in US–EU relations. Vance sharply criticized European governments for failing to uphold shared values such as freedom of speech and for increasingly moving to silence political opponents, particularly on the right.
On X, Vance wrote that ‘bureaucrats’ were trying to ‘destroy’ the AfD, adding: ‘Together, the West tore down the Berlin Wall. And it has been rebuilt—not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment.’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the sentiment, stating on X that Germany is ‘not a democracy’ but a ‘tyranny in disguise.’
Even El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele joined the chorus of criticism, questioning the objectivity of international democratic rankings. ‘When will all these rankings and coloured maps finally stop calling Germany a full democracy?’ he asked in a post on X, referring to NGOs such as Transparency International and Freedom House, which annually produce what he called biased democracy rankings and indexes.
Although Germany’s establishment parties have long pushed to ban the AfD, incoming Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt has stated that such a move is not planned following the BfV’s designation. The AfD is currently polling at around 26 per cent, making it the largest party in Germany, while the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)—which won the election—is trailing at 24 per cent.
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