In the future, the youth organization of the AfD will be observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a secured right-wing extremist effort. This was announced by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) on Wednesday. Two other New Right groups were classified accordingly.
“There is no longer any doubt that these three groups of people are pursuing anti-constitutional efforts,” said BfV President Thomas Haldenwang. “They are therefore classified and processed by the BfV as secured right-wing extremist efforts.”
All three associations had previously been processed by the domestic intelligence service as suspected right-wing extremist cases.
If there is a suspicion, there are “sufficiently weighty factual indications” of anti-constitutional efforts. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution can then evaluate and store personal data. Even in suspicious cases, the Federal Office can use intelligence resources under strict conditions, i.e. secretly obtain information – for example through observation or recruiting informants. After a certain period of time, the duration of which is not regulated by law at federal level, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution decides whether the suspicion is confirmed or not.
The classification as right-wing extremist has significant consequences for the organizations concerned and their members: The proportionality of the use of intelligence resources is assessed differently. If a security check is carried out on someone who is attributed to an extremist movement – for example because he or she is applying for a license to own weapons – what the Office for the Protection of the Constitution delivers is different.
Members of an anti-constitutional organization are also considered unreliable in terms of weapons law. That means gun licenses can be denied or withdrawn. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution also reports in more detail on the findings available to it.
The classification is particularly problematic for YES members who work in the public sector – after all, they have taken an oath to uphold the constitution and have undertaken to protect the Basic Law.
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior pointed out that the classification had no general impact on employment in the public sector. A case-by-case examination is always necessary here, “whether someone is on the ground of the Basic Law or is pursuing extremist efforts”.
A report by the Federal Ministry of the Interior from 2020 states that the perception of prominent positions or election candidates in a party or organization that has been identified by the BfV as an anti-constitutional object of observation should be “assessed as activities that go beyond mere membership, which encourage the acceptance of a breach of the political duty of allegiance”.
In January 2019, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the correctional institution as a suspected case and thus also as an object for observation. The AfD had tried to use legal means to prevent the observation of the JA and the entire party as a suspected case. However, both lawsuits failed before the administrative court in Cologne. The party later appealed the verdicts. The proceedings at the Higher Administrative Court in Münster have not yet been completed.
