Saxony's AfD takes legal action against classification as a right-wing extremist organization

The Saxon AfD is taking legal action against the classification as a confirmed right-wing extremist movement by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. On Friday, the party announced both a temporary injunction and proceedings on the merits. Party leader Jörg Urban said that the party wanted to achieve a swift prohibition of this claim and spoke of defamation. The expert opinion, which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution cited as the basis for its decision, was being denied to the AfD with reference to an alleged secret classified matter. The accusations were only known from a press release issued by the authority.

The classification was a political move, said Urban. He held Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) personally responsible for this. It was an instruction from Kretschmer to politically defame the AfD in the run-up to the election. A "huge pomposity" is being blown up out of "almost nothing". The basis of this decision was not disclosed to the AfD, which is why it must now defend itself legally. Urban affirmed that the AfD does not question the free democratic basic order.

The expert opinion itself is now to be enforced with a temporary injunction at the Dresden Administrative Court. As the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV) rejected the request in a letter dated December 18, the injunction must be applied for within one month - i.e. by January 18. The aim is to publish the report as soon as it is received, said Deputy State Director Joachim Keiler, who is in charge of the proceedings as a lawyer. "We are not shying away from the dispute." The main proceedings at the administrative court will concern the classification itself. Keiler also did not rule out taking the matter to the Saxon Constitutional Court.

After four years of examination, the LfV Saxony classified the AfD accordingly at the beginning of December. There was no longer any doubt about its right-wing extremist orientation, explained the head of the authorities, Dirk-Martin Christian. The party had previously received such a rating in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. Now it can also be monitored by intelligence services in Saxony. With a view to the legal steps that will now follow, the AfD itself claims, among other things, that in recent years it has only appeared in reports by the LfV as a victim of left-wing violence.

According to Urban, there was an increase in membership applications after the party was classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The mood in the party was "militant". The decision was more of an act of defiance.