Top-ranking officials in US President Donald Trump's administration were quick to criticize Germany's domestic intelligence agency BfV on Friday for designating the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a "right-wing extremist" entity.

The agency said the party's positions on ethnicity were incompatible with democracy, noting that the AfD "aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society."

It also highlighted the party's use of hateful rhetoric and incitement to undermine democratic institutions.

The BfV had previously designated several local AfD branches as right-wing extremist groups, but it now said it decided to give the entire party the label due to its attempts to "undermine the free, democratic" order in the country.

The designation gives authorities........

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