AfD Co-Chairman Tino Chrupalla promises to challenge the decision to classify the party as “safely right-wing extremist” even if his party wins in the future. “We will only politically resolve it by taking over the Ministry of the Interior in the next election” Chrupalla said to RTL and ntv on Friday. “It will happen in the next state election. And then we will also tackle the issue of the Federal Ministry of the Interior.”
A possible AfD Interior Minister “would take a closer look at what the Federal Ministry of the Interior has been responsible for in the past few years” Chrupalla said. “Above all, he would also finally give us the documents explaining why we were classified as we are.”
AfD members who work in the state service are promised support from the party. “That’s why I really ask our members to remain calm” said Chrupalla. “We have always fought for these members and put them first. We will also do that in the future. We continue to advise our members and we have a large membership increase, to endure this.”
The Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD as “a safely right-wing extremist tendency due to the extremist character of the entire party and the disregard of human dignity.” This is the highest possible classification. According to the legal mandate, the agency has evaluated the party’s actions according to the fundamental principles of the constitution: human dignity, the democratic principle and the rule of law. The agency considers not only the party’s program and statements but also the statements and actions of its representatives and their connections to right-wing extremist actors and groups.
Parties that “pursue their goals or the behavior of their supporters to undermine or eliminate the free democratic basic order or endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany” are considered unconstitutional according to Article 21 of the Basic Law. The Federal Constitutional Court will decide on the question of constitutionality. According to a federal law, the request for a ban can be made by the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, or the federal government.