Saxon AfD files suit against constitution protection report

The Saxon AfD wants to take legal action against being named as a right-wing extremist group in the current constitution protection report. A lawsuit already pending at the administrative court in Dresden is to be extended, the party announced in Dresden on Friday.

The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV) had classified the Saxon state association of the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist endeavor" in December 2023. The party has already taken legal action against this. The proceedings are still pending. The AfD is also insisting on the publication of an expert report that the constitutional protectors use as the basis for their assessment.

On Friday, AfD chairman Jörg Urban vehemently denied his party's extremist positions and denounced stigmatization. The concept of extremism has been defined since the 1970s: "It's about fantasies of overthrow, it's about violence that is to be used. We are light years away from that," he said and spoke of an "absurd discussion".

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is increasingly being seen as the "language police", said Urban. Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) was using the agency "to fight the opposition". AfD state deputy Joachim Keiler pointed out that the AfD only appeared in previous constitution protection reports as a victim of left-wing violence.

Nowhere in the current report is it shown that the Saxon AfD "plans to abolish the constitution or is aggressively combative against it or the Basic Law": "This is also not possible, as it is not the political goal of the Saxon AfD," it said. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is being misused politically.

Interior Minister Schuster recently denied any political motivation when presenting the report and described the classification of the AfD as a right-wing extremist movement as an exclusively legal process. The LfV justified its stance in the report on the protection of the constitution by stating, among other things, that the AfD state association in Saxony is striving for a fundamental political change of direction, "which the party itself also describes as a change of system".

Urban admitted that the classification as a "confirmed right-wing extremist movement" initially brought the party in Saxony an increase in members and donations. However, the party is fighting for an absolute majority in the state and wants to reach voters who have not yet voted for the AfD. "We want to win CDU voters, we want to win left-wing voters, we want to win SPD voters." However, if the AfD is defamed, this will prevent it from growing. According to Keiler, the categorization of East German state associations as right-wing extremist also has repercussions in some West German associations.