The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (domestic intelligence) in the state of Saxony, in Eastern Germany, confirmed the designation of the “AfD” (Alternative for Germany) party, which is hostile to immigration, as an “extreme right-wing organization” in the state, making Saxony the third German state to take this step.
“There is no longer any doubt about the far-right tendencies of the AfD in Saxony,” said Dirk-Martin Christian, director of the office in Dresden.
Thus, the state of Saxony is the third German state to take this step and include the AfD in this classification, after the states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt.
Internal intelligence in Saxony first began studying the case of the right-wing populist party as a test case, before later classifying it as a suspect case in February 2021.
Christian added in a summary of what the intelligence had done: “After a comprehensive legal review process, we have come to the conclusion that the AfD party branch in Saxony should be classified as a subject of surveillance.”
During the four years of intensive review, we collected numerous political statements and demands, especially from senior leaders in the party, its electoral representatives, and its ties in the districts, that is, statements and demands from people with a high degree of representation.
Taken together, these statements and demands have proven beyond doubt that the regional branch of the AfD Party seeks to achieve goals that are hostile to the Constitution.”, according to the “Amal, Berlin!” website.
In the parliamentary elections in the state that took place in 2019, the party obtained 27.5% of the second votes (allocated to party lists), and the results of the latest opinion polls revealed that the balance between the AfD Party and the Christian Democratic Party was equal, as each of them received the support of 33% of voters in the state.
Christian went on to say that the party branch in Saxony may have been heterogeneous at the level of individuals, but it was dominated in terms of content and program by what is known as the National Solidarity Camp, which emerged from the old “wing,” and of which “the extreme rightist Björn Höcke is its leader and spiritual father, and this camp shapes the personality of the entire party branch which is dominated by it.”
