Bavaria court upholds monitoring of state's far-right AfD

The Munich Administrative Court on Monday said Germany's domestic intelligence agency in Bavaria was allowed to monitor the regional association of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a suspected extremist group.

What does the ruling mean?

The ruling clears the path to monitor the group using of undercover agents and intercepted communications.

In its decision, the Munich Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit against the measures as unfounded.

It said thousands of pages of evidence compiled from publicly accessible sources — including chat transcripts and speech clips excerpts — prove that the AfD has an anti-constitutional orientation and that it merits observation. 

The spectrum ranges from anti-foreigner and anti-Muslim statements to anti-democratic statements by AfD members and party officials, the court said on Monday.

What happens now?

The party had already lost in two instances in the urgent case in lower courts. AfD state chairman Stephan Protschka said at the beginning of the hearing that he did not expect the lawsuit to be successful before the administrative court.

He announced that the party would appeal to other instances if the lawsuit was rejected.

The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which monitors potential threats to Germany's democratic values and institutions, announced in 2022 that it would begin monitoring the state-level AfD party.

The office vowed in the announcement that it would make public reports on its findings. However, the agency said it would refrain from deploying undercover agents or wiretaps until a final judicial ruling.

In the European Parliament elections on June 9, the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came second in Germany — and in the five states in the east of the country, the party, which has extremist factions, even came first.

rc/fb (dpa, AFP)