According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, “right-wing extremist conspiracy theories” were sometimes spread at the AfD’s European election meeting in Magdeburg.
The President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, told the German Press Agency: “Although the complete list of candidates for the election and the election program for the European elections have not yet been finally agreed. But it is already apparent that people who held positions in the past have noticed that are not compatible with our free democratic basic order, will belong to the AfD delegation in the coming European Parliament.”
Haldenwang: Influence continues to increase
Representatives of the former more moderate camp would have played almost no role in the line-up this weekend. “Rather, various candidates for election expressed right-wing extremist conspiracy theories, such as those of the so-called ‘Great Exchange’,” said Haldenwang. He added: “The previous European election meeting of the AfD, which we are dealing with as a suspected case, once again confirms our assessment that there are strong anti-constitutional currents within the party whose influence is continuing to increase.”
The AfD elected its first 15 candidates for the European elections in Magdeburg on Saturday and Sunday. The meeting was interrupted on Sunday evening, and around 15 more candidates are to be elected from Friday.
The election program should only be decided after the list has been drawn up. It could possibly only be discussed at an additional meeting, which would have to take place in January at the latest. Only then will it be clear whether the AfD will start this time with the demand for radical reform of the European Union so that more decisions are made nationally again. However, the “Dexit” camp, which advocates Germany’s exit from the EU, could also prevail. Another point of contention is likely to be the attitude towards NATO.
Borrowings from the Identitarian Movement
Irmhild Boßdorf, who came in ninth place at the weekend, used a catchphrase from the Identitarian Movement to campaign for votes in her application speech. She called for “remigration by the millions” and said that Germans should fear “man-made population change” rather than man-made climate change. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution lists the Identitarian Movement in its current report in the chapter on right-wing extremism. The Cologne Administrative Court found in 2022 that the movement’s “massive xenophobic agitation” expressed “a disregard for the human rights specified in the Basic Law. Statements such as “remigration” or “stop population exchange” are xenophobic and Islamophobic.
Other places on the list went to AfD representatives who complained about “multiculturalism” or “mass immigration”. The Bavarian member of the Bundestag Petr Bystron secured second place. In his application speech, he said: “The worst thing, the migrant quotas, the forced assignment of migrants, that’s an attack on everything we hold dear, our culture, our religion, yes, our homeland.”
In March 2021, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist. This classification, which allows the use of intelligence services, was confirmed by the Cologne Administrative Court in March 2022. The AfD appealed. The proceedings before the Higher Administrative Court in Münster have not yet been completed.
