Will the AfD be banned in Germany following the BfV ruling?

Update: The AfD is now challenging the BfV's ruling that the party is "confirmed right-wing extremist". The BfV announced that it will refrain from using the term until a verdict it reached on the Afd's legal challenge.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has officially designated the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) as a “rightwing extremist” organisation. Does the ruling mean an AfD ban is on the horizon?

BfV rules AfD as “rightwing extremist”

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), a domestic intelligence agency, has ruled that the AfD is a “confirmed rightwing extremist” organisation.

The label has been designated on the basis that the party’s “ethnic-ancestry-based understanding” of who is German is “incompatible with the free democratic basic order” outlined in Germany’s postwar constitution (Grundgesetz).

These understandings of who is German are incompatible with the constitution because they seek to “exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society, to subject them to unconstitutional unequal treatment and thus to assign them a legally devalued status."

More specifically, the agency outlined that the AfD did not consider residents and citizens with a “migration background from predominantly Muslim countries” to be equal to other German citizens.

The party has ties to neo-Nazi groups and three of its regional divisions have already been officially labelled as “extremist” by German courts.

Does the BfV ruling mean the AfD will be banned in Germany?

Widespread calls to ban the AfD began in January 2024, when an investigation by Correctiv found that AfD politicians had met with neo-Nazi activists to devise a “remigration” plan for non-German citizens and German citizens with a migrant background living in Germany.

The new BfV ruling does not mean that the party can be banned, but it does mean that intelligence authorities have extended powers to investigate the party. Investigative methods that will now be permitted include surveilling the party for possible illegal activities, tapping phone calls and other communication, observing meetings, and planting informants.

Even if the BfV found further incriminating evidence, the agency does not have the authority to ban the party. Such a decision would have to pass through parliament or the German constitutional court.

When Germany’s new government takes office on May 7, the AfD will be the second-largest in party parliament, and is currently polling first among voters. Co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have already said their party will challenge the BfV ruling in court.