German court: AfD youth secured extremist Chile is on fire

The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution can classify the youth organization of the right-wing populist AfD as a confirmed extremist effort. The Cologne Administrative Court published a corresponding decision on Tuesday, dated February 5.

The decision is not yet legally binding. The AfD and its youth organization can file a complaint against this with the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) had previously classified the youth organization as a suspected case. A lawsuit against this decision was dismissed by the Cologne Administrative Court. In mid-March, the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) will hear this question in the next case.

In April 2023, the BfV announced that the observation of suspected cases had provided indications that the AfD youth organization Junge Alternative (JA) had provided further evidence of efforts against the free democratic basic order. Therefore, the Junge alternative is classified and treated as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort.

The AfD and the youth organization filed a lawsuit against this in June 2023 and defended themselves against the classification in an urgent application. The Cologne Administrative Court rejected the urgent request.

The AfD was originally founded in 2013 by critics of the euro bailout policy, but has since moved to the right and found its main problem in restricting immigration. Several East German regional associations have already been classified as definitively extremist. In Germany-wide surveys, the AfD is the second strongest force behind the Christian Democrats. However, their values ​​have recently fallen back below 20 percent, possibly due to the large demonstrations against right-wing extremism in many German cities in recent weeks. (sda/dpa)