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eugyppius
May 02, 2025
This morning, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) officially reclassified Alternative für Deutschland as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organisation. The BfV is Germany’s primary domestic intelligence agency; it is subject to the Ministry of the Interior and tasked, among other things, with policing the democratic respectability of ordinary Germans and their political parties. The upgraded AfD classification is supported by an extensive and totally secret 1,100-page assessment of AfD activities and beliefs, which BfV analysts have been preparing since last year.
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While the BfV assessment bears enormous political importance, its legal significance is rather more obscure. Most concretely, the BfV will enjoy even greater freedom to use surveillance and intelligence-gathering tactics against the AfD; otherwise, party membership may bring enhanced scrutiny upon civil servants and Germans who apply for things like weapons permits.
In their press release, the BfV justify their reclassification by appealing to “the extremist nature” of the AfD and “its disregard for human dignity.” The central political crime of the AfD and its members is alleged to be their “prevailing understanding of the German people” as a group “defined by ethnic descent” – an understanding they say is “incompatible with the free democratic basic order.”
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[The AfD] aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society, subject them to unconstitutional unequal treatment and thus assign them a legally inferior status. Specifically, the AfD does not consider German citizens with a migration background from Muslim countries to be equal members of the German people as defined by the party on ethnic grounds.
This exclusionary understanding of the German people is the starting point and ideological basis for continuous agitation against certain individuals or groups. The party defames and disparages these groups generally and stirs up irrational fears about them, encouraging their rejection. This is evident in the large number of ongoing xenophobic, anti-minority, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim statements made by leading party officials. In particular, the ongoing agitation against refugees and migrants promotes the spread and deepening of prejudices, resentment and fears towards such groups. The devaluation of the aforementioned groups is also evident in the generalised use of terms such as ‘knife migrants’ [Messermigranten] or in the general attribution of an ethno-cultural propensity for violence by leading members of the AfD.
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As I said above, the BfV assessment is secret, officially to protect the intelligence sources and methods that underpin its contents, but surely also to spare BfV argumentation and criteria from public scrutiny. The BfV are, however, busy leaking key evidentiary nuggets to the press, because like all intelligence agencies they are also a publicity operation, with an explicit remit to stir up condemnation and stigma against those who think the wrong way.
Full story:
www.eugyppius.com
May 02, 2025
This morning, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) officially reclassified Alternative für Deutschland as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organisation. The BfV is Germany’s primary domestic intelligence agency; it is subject to the Ministry of the Interior and tasked, among other things, with policing the democratic respectability of ordinary Germans and their political parties. The upgraded AfD classification is supported by an extensive and totally secret 1,100-page assessment of AfD activities and beliefs, which BfV analysts have been preparing since last year.
.
While the BfV assessment bears enormous political importance, its legal significance is rather more obscure. Most concretely, the BfV will enjoy even greater freedom to use surveillance and intelligence-gathering tactics against the AfD; otherwise, party membership may bring enhanced scrutiny upon civil servants and Germans who apply for things like weapons permits.
In their press release, the BfV justify their reclassification by appealing to “the extremist nature” of the AfD and “its disregard for human dignity.” The central political crime of the AfD and its members is alleged to be their “prevailing understanding of the German people” as a group “defined by ethnic descent” – an understanding they say is “incompatible with the free democratic basic order.”
____
[The AfD] aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society, subject them to unconstitutional unequal treatment and thus assign them a legally inferior status. Specifically, the AfD does not consider German citizens with a migration background from Muslim countries to be equal members of the German people as defined by the party on ethnic grounds.
This exclusionary understanding of the German people is the starting point and ideological basis for continuous agitation against certain individuals or groups. The party defames and disparages these groups generally and stirs up irrational fears about them, encouraging their rejection. This is evident in the large number of ongoing xenophobic, anti-minority, Islamophobic and anti-Muslim statements made by leading party officials. In particular, the ongoing agitation against refugees and migrants promotes the spread and deepening of prejudices, resentment and fears towards such groups. The devaluation of the aforementioned groups is also evident in the generalised use of terms such as ‘knife migrants’ [Messermigranten] or in the general attribution of an ethno-cultural propensity for violence by leading members of the AfD.
____
As I said above, the BfV assessment is secret, officially to protect the intelligence sources and methods that underpin its contents, but surely also to spare BfV argumentation and criteria from public scrutiny. The BfV are, however, busy leaking key evidentiary nuggets to the press, because like all intelligence agencies they are also a publicity operation, with an explicit remit to stir up condemnation and stigma against those who think the wrong way.
Full story:
Domestic spy agency declares Alternative für Deutschland to be a "confirmed right-wing extremist" organisation, as authorities inch closer to banning the party
The AfD allegedly understand Germanness to be “defined by ethnic descent,” which is “incompatible with the free democratic basic order" of the Federal Republic.
www.eugyppius.com
