Saxony's AfD defends itself against classification as a right-wing extremist movement

The AfD in Saxony intends to defend itself against the rejection of its urgent appeal against the classification as a confirmed right-wing extremist movement by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. "We will lodge an appeal after examining the reasons," said Andreas Harlaß, spokesperson for the AfD Saxony, on request.

The Dresden Administrative Court rejected the urgent appeal and announced the decision to the party and the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Tuesday. The parties involved have two weeks to lodge an appeal with the Higher Administrative Court in Bautzen.

The state office had classified the Saxon state association of the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist movement" in December 2023. With its urgent application, the AfD wanted to ensure that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was no longer allowed to classify, observe, treat, examine and/or manage it accordingly. The urgent application also objected to the public announcement of the classification. It also demanded the publication of an expert opinion on which the classification was based.

The administrative court rejected all three points. The court stated that there were sufficient factual indications that the applicant was pursuing efforts that were directed against the human dignity of certain groups of people and against the principle of democracy.