German domestic intelligence agency designates AfD party as right-wing extremist

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has designated the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as right-wing extremist, which would likely lower the threshold to use surveillance and informants in monitoring it.

"The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order," the agency, called the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said in a statement, the BBC reported Friday.

The domestic intelligence agency, which conducts counter-intelligence and investigates terror threats, said the AfD did not consider citizens of a "migration background from predominantly Muslim countries" as equal members of the German people.

During the federal elections in February, the AfD came in second, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote. Next week, the parliament will hold a vote to confirm conservative leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor, who will head a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats.

AfD joint leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said the agency's designation was "clearly politically motivated" and a "severe blow to German democracy." They also said their party was being "discredited and criminalized" shortly before the change of government.

AfD Deputy Chairman Stephan Brandner said the designation was "complete nonsense, has absolutely nothing to do with law and order."

Acting Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the agency made the decision with "no political influence whatsoever," after a review and a report of 1,100 pages.

The agency's designation of AfD as right-wing extremist is expected to be challenged in the courts.

German parliament Vice-President Andrea Lindholz said that AfD should not be treated as other parties in parliament because of the designation. She added that it was now "almost unthinkable" for AfD members to be eligible to chair parliamentary committees.