The youth wing of a well-known far right nationalist party in Germany was deemed an extremist group by the country’s domestic intelligence agency on Wednesday. The AfD party is now likely to be placed under intense surveillance, as the group has been investigated over a number of years, per The Times of Israel.
The agency decided to move forward in reclassifying the “Youth Alternative” as an extremist group after it had monitored its dealings over the past four years.The whole party, called Alternative for Germany (AfD), was put under surveillance a year ago, the first time the agency had taken such a serious step against a major political opposition party since World War II.
The official platform of the party suggests that it supports direct democracy, separation of state powers, and the rule of law and order, per the DW. However, there are those who have said that the party harbors neo-Nazi ideas, especially from the leader of the party’s wing in the state of Thuringia, Björn Höcke. The outlet also noted that the critics of the party say that the party adheres to a strategy of targeted departures from anti-Nazi taboos in an apparent attempt to appeal to far-right-minded people.
The New York Times reported that there were two other right-wing institutions that were labeled as extremists groups: the One Percent group and the Institute for State Policy. The agency has apparently reduced these two groups as part of the New Right phenomenon in the country, suggesting that they promote violence, and spew anti-democratic, racist sentiment, per the report.
However, the group’s classification as an extremist group could mean that its members could lose job opportunities in the public sector, as well as be prohibited from possessing a weapons license.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution said: “There is no longer any doubt that these three groups of people are pursuing anti-constitutional aspirations.”
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser noted: “These actors of the so-called ‘new right’ spread nothing but hatred and exclusion.”
She added: “They try to combine this with a supposedly educated, more modern face. But the inhuman ideologies behind it are clear.”
