The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been classified as “extremist“ in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony by the regional branch of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, DPA reported.
The anti-immigrant AfD became the largest opposition party in Germany after last year's parliamentary elections, but has been consistently accused of extremist leanings.
“The assessment of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is clear“, said Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Daniela Behrens today. “The biggest danger to our society comes from right-wing extremism and according to this classification, the AfD in Lower Saxony clearly falls into this category.“
Several regional party structures in Germany's 16 federal states have already been classified as “confirmed“ cases of right-wing extremism, allowing the services to investigate and monitor them.
Last year, the party's national leadership also received the same classification, but appealed the decision. Although the AfD finished second in the last parliamentary elections, other parties continue to rule out the possibility of cooperation with it - a policy known in Germany as “firewall“.
The Lower Saxony Interior Ministry said that far-right ideology was widespread in the party. “Anti-constitutional statements and behavior, often expressed in aggressive and confrontational language, characterize the party,“ it said in the statement.
The ministry added that the AfD is dominated by a fundamental tendency towards rejecting Germany's free and democratic constitutional order.
Last year, the state's domestic intelligence service reported that the number of far-right extremists in the party's structure in Lower Saxony had grown from around 600 to 850 in 2024, out of a total of 8,000 members.
The next elections in Lower Saxony are scheduled for 2027. A survey in November showed support for the AfD at 20%, significantly more than the 11% the party received in the previous regional elections in 2022.
The AfD is expected to achieve record support in five regional votes this year, with the southwestern region of Baden-Württemberg voting first on March 8.
In September, the party could even win an outright majority majority in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, which would allow her to head a provincial government for the first time.