The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has temporarily refrained from classifying the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as \u201cdefinitely far-right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The elevation of the classification has been suspended until the administrative court rules on the lawsuit filed by the AfD, but it will not be withdrawn.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the court, the BfV stated that it would only register the AfD as a \u201csuspicious case\u201d until the decision-making body rules on this case. The press release regarding the elevation of the AfD\u2019s classification has been removed from the BfV\u2019s website, but this does not mean the decision has been reversed.<\/p>\n
The party nevertheless interpreted this step by the BfV as a success. AfD co-chairs Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said, \u201cWe will defend the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution\u2019s classification through all legal means, and the Federal Office has committed not to describe the Alternative for Germany as \u2018right-wing extremist\u2019 until the court decision is final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lower Saxony AfD state chairman Ansgar Schledde said, \u201cThus, the unjust and politically motivated classification of the AfD has finally been corrected. This is an important step for our party to receive fair treatment based on the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Schledde, the suspension of the classification showed that \u201cthe AfD\u2019s arguments were taken into account and that the rule of law still functions in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, behind the BfV\u2019s decision lies a method frequently used in urgent judicial proceedings: To prevent facts from emerging due to a measure taken by the competent authorities \u2013 for example, the surveillance of AfD members of parliament according to the new classification \u2013 the relevant authorities often voluntarily agree not to take action until a court decision is issued.<\/p>\n
The BfV informed the court that it wanted to allow time for \u201can appropriate summary review\u201d and emphasized that the suspension of the classification resulted from respect for the court, \u201cwithout accepting a legal obligation.\u201d The BfV said, \u201cSince the press release already had a certain effect, it has now been taken offline again for the time being.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first legal decision regarding the classification belongs to the Cologne Administrative Court. A timeframe for when the urgent judicial decision will be made cannot currently be predicted; according to experts\u2019 estimates, the judicial process could take a long time.<\/p>\n
When the AfD challenged its classification as a \u201csuspicious case\u201d in 2021, it took the Cologne Administrative Court 14 months to issue its final decision on the party\u2019s urgent application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has temporarily refrained from classifying the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as \u201cdefinitely far-right.\u201d The elevation of the classification has been suspended until the administrative court rules on the lawsuit filed by the AfD, but it will not be withdrawn. In a statement to the court, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6550,1483,5706,6545,9757,9754,9752,2652,543,9755,5147,9753,9756],"class_list":["post-9411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-administrative-court","tag-afd","tag-alternative-for-germany","tag-bfv","tag-cologne-administrative-court","tag-court-case","tag-far-right-classification","tag-federal-office-for-the-protection-of-the-constitution","tag-germany","tag-political-classification","tag-rule-of-law","tag-suspicious-case","tag-urgent-judicial-proceedings"],"yoast_head":"\n