Germany has crossed a perilous threshold. The country’s domestic intelligence service, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution), has officially labeled the Alternative for Germany (AfD) a “confirmed right-wing extremist” party. While not a formal ban, this classification moves the AfD closer to complete political exclusion, creating risks far graver than the government and its allies seem willing to acknowledge.

This act is being justified on grounds familiar to Germany’s political culture: the need to defend the democratic constitutional order, to uphold human dignity, and to protect society from extremist threats. Yet in reality, it looks suspiciously like a politically motivated escalation-one that could undermine the very democratic principles the Verfassungsschutz claims to defend.

The facts of the situation are stark. The AfD, Germany’s largest opposition party, representing nearly a quarter of voters according to recent polls, has long been controversial for its nationalist rhetoric, harsh anti-immigration stance, and criticism of the European Union. Regional branches and its former youth organization had previously been labeled as extremist. The entire party was designated a “suspect case” (Verdachtsfall) years ago, allowing government surveillance. Now, the entire party has been formally blacklisted as extremist.

This designation means intensified surveillance, heavier stigmatization, and a greater likelihood of legal efforts to prohibit the AfD entirely. While the Verfassungsschutz’s detailed, thousand-page report remains unpublished, its conclusions have been publicly paraded: the AfD allegedly violates human dignity through its rhetoric, promotes a racially exclusive notion of German identity (described with the fraught term völkisch), and thus fundamentally opposes the constitutional order.

The stakes are enormous. Although AfD members remain free to run for office and voters may still cast ballots for them, this is no........

© Blitz