There is no longer any doubt: The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has declared that the "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party is proven to be right-wing extremist. Until now, it had been categorized as "suspicious" and was monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Only in individual states was the AfD declared "proven right-wing extremist": in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
Encroachments on human dignity, the rule of law, the principle of democracy
In the morning hours of May 2, 2025, the Federal Office informed that the party had now been categorized as a "proven right-wing extremist organization" throughout the country. This means that the AfD opposes the free democratic order. A press release states that the evidence for this has "strengthened".
The decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is not a complete surprise. According to information from the German public television ARD, the Federal Office's report contains over 1,000 pages and aims to prove why the AfD is unconstitutional. Of particular importance here are attacks on human dignity, the rule of law or the principle of democracy.
Last year, the party was expected to be declared "proven right-wing extremist". However, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution reportedly initially refrained from doing so due to the early federal elections that had been announced, in order to avoid being accused of violating equal opportunities for parties in the election campaign. It is considered certain that the AfD will take legal action against the Federal Office's decision. The party has always described the monitoring it has been subjected to by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as politically motivated.
Will the AfD be banned?
The decision by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is likely to renew the debate about banning the "Alternative for Germany". However, there is no guarantee that this will happen, because the decision is neither a prerequisite for this nor is the banning procedure an inevitable consequence, the ARD points out. It is rather a political decision: a banning procedure can only be initiated by the Bundestag, the Bundesrat and the federal government by submitting an application to the Federal Constitutional Court, which must then rule on it.
In January, an initiative to submit an application to ban the AfD, initiated by the then CDU Bundestag member Marco Wanderwitz, failed in January 2025 because it did not have enough supporters.