2024-07-23 22:00:18
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia often takes a pioneering role in classifying the AfD. Now the agency is apparently tightening its assessment again.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia has apparently classified the Thuringian regional association of the AfD as “combative and aggressive” in an internal analysis. This is reported by the “Welt am Sonntag” newspaper, citing a secret memo that the security agency sent to the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior. The document could reignite the debate about banning the AfD.
The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has taken a pioneering role in monitoring the AfD several times. In 2018, the Erfurt authority classified the AfD’s regional association as a “case for investigation” for the first time. Three years later, the office was the first in the country to classify the Thuringian AfD as “proven right-wing extremist”. Since then, Björn Höcke’s regional association has been under intelligence surveillance and the security authorities can use informants in the party’s environment.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is continuing to classify the AfD as a “combative and aggressive” party two months before the state elections in Thuringia: According to the document that has been made public, the AfD in Thuringia is “constantly” stirring up rejection of the “constitutional state order”. The party is attracting attention through “defamation of state institutions and the parties that support them”. In addition, the AfD is stirring up the view that the cause of grievances lies “in the nature of the democratic constitutional state”.
In addition, representatives of the party would publicly claim that “foreign powers” want to control Germany and destroy the people. The AfD propagates a “violent struggle as a legitimate last resort for liberation from the yoke” of these powers.
For surveillance by secret services, it is only necessary to establish anti-constitutional activities. The characterization as “combative and aggressive” goes beyond that. In practice, the harsher choice of words is often used to justify a ban on an association. But in this case, the attitude would not imply a “fight against the constitutional order” that is necessary for a party ban, “Welt” quotes from the note.
In fact, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is currently avoiding the discussion of a ban. The background to the more severe assessment is probably a legal dispute. Last year, the district administration of the Saale-Orla district banned an AfD member from carrying a weapon, citing the classification of the regional association as “certainly right-wing extremist” in its justification.
The AfD member went to the administrative court in Gera and won the case. The court found that the reports from the security authorities to date were not sufficient to prove that the entire Thuringia AfD association was hostile to the constitution. The Higher Administrative Court confirmed the decision because the AfD had not “established a combative, aggressive attitude relevant to weapons law” in order to take away the man’s weapons.
The verdict was a defeat for the Interior Ministry and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which immediately set about finding the missing evidence. To do this, the agency compiled 35 statements from AfD officials that were supposed to prove a “combative and aggressive” attitude. 31 of these statements came from Björn Höcke.
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The state security service includes, among other things, a speech that Höcke gave at a Pegida meeting in November 2023: “Meet each other and believe me: When push comes to shove, we will recognize each other. Then we will find each other. Then we will be what we have always been. Loyal and German and a community that will fight for the future.” For the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the speech demonstrates a “spirit of resistance” that is directed against the state order.
In response to a request from “Welt am Sonntag”, the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution confirmed that the investigation into the AfD’s “combative, aggressive stance” has not yet been completed. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Ministry of the Interior want to further evaluate the legal issues.