The German deep state is preparing to ban the AfD, declaring it «far-right». The ruling parties fear being replaced by patriots.
Jonas Greindberg 
This week, Germany’s spy agency, the “Office for the Protection of the Constitution”, has declared the AfD “right-wing extremist”.
This move by the OPC, which takes its orders from Nancy Faeser, a Social Democrat and acting Interior Minister, is applauded by the German establishment. Marco Rubio, however, defended the AfD from the attack. Secretary Rubio wrote that it is not the AfD that is extremist, but rather Germany’s “deadly open border” policy.
Constitutional Ban Process.
The OPC’s declaration signals that the deep state may soon file a motion before the Federal Constitutional Court to ban the AfD, a lengthy process that is mentioned in Article 21 of the German constitution.
The declaration comes days after the AfD overtook the Christian Democrats, who are expected to soon form a government with the Social Democratic SPD, as Germany’s most popular party. Lame-duck Minister Nancy Faeser, who has caused a nationwide uproar for wanting to jail critical journalists, justified the decision of her spy agency: “The AfD is demonstrably fighting against the liberal democratic order. The AfD promotes an ethnically inspired concept of the people that discriminates against entire groups.”
Faeser’s Attacks on Dissent and Press Freedom.
Faeser’s statement is a typical projection: In August 2023, for example, Faeser called for the deportation of foreigners without due process. The AfD, on the other hand, has repeatedly declared its commitment to constitutional rights and the rule of law.
Faeser’s statement also contradicts the German constitution, which she claims to protect: Article 116 (1) introduces the concept of German peoplehood and grants ethnic Germans living outside the state borders privileged access to citizenship. In its coalition agreement with the Christian Democrats, Faeser’s own party promises special treatment to people of Jewish, German, Danish, Sorbian, and Frisian ethnic origin.
Petr Bystron, an AfD member of the European Parliament, criticized Faeser’s spy agency OPC for failing to provide any evidence for declaring the AfD “right-wing extremist”, thus violating the legal principle of the burden of proof. Bystron described Faeser’s justification as “half-baked Antifa balderdash”.
Shortly before last year’s EU elections, the SPD-led coalition government stripped Bystron of his parliamentary immunity, leading to a raid on his premises by 70 police officers. A few months before her appointment as Interior Minister in December 2021, Faeser published an article in the left-wing magazine antifa in which she explained that the persecution of the dissident right belongs to the “political DNA” of her party.
Faeser has repeatedly demonstrated her disregard for the liberal democratic order: When right-wing journalist David Bendels posted a meme of Nancy Faeser holding a sign that read “I hate freedom of speech”, Faeser personally pressed charges under § 188 of the German criminal code, a controversial speech law that exclusively protects politicians from criticism. In the first instance, Bendels was sentenced to seven months on probation. In June 2024, Faeser banned the patriotic Compact Magazin, an unprecedented attack on freedom of the press that was immediately overturned by the courts.
If Faeser’s spy agency OPC were following its mission to protect the constitution, it would be fighting the left-wing party “Die Linke” instead of persecuting the AfD, which has consistently denounced violence. In 2021, Die Linke, which won nearly 9 percent in the recent general election, publicly declared its solidarity with the “Hammer Gang”, a left-wing terrorist organization wanted for several assassination attempts on political dissidents.
In the East German city of Eilenburg, for example, members of the “Hammer Gang” dressed as police officers, raided the home of a German nationalist, and smashed his ankles with hammers. Shocking footage shows how 15 masked Antifa terrorists sneaking up on an unsuspecting victim outside a cafe in Budapest and knocking him to the ground with baton blows to the back of his head. Before fleeing, the extremists sprayed pepper spray in the face of the victim that is covered in blood.
The German Public Prosecutor General has called the terrorist organization an enemy of “democracy and the rule of law”. Die Linke has not withdrawn its declaration of solidarity with the “Hammer Gang”, even after its leader, Lina Engel, was sentenced to more than five years in prison in March 2025.
Yet, the spy agency OPC does not even consider Die Linke as a “suspected case of left-wing extremism”, a central concept in the parlance of German spooks. Designating a party in this way allows the OPC to infiltrate it with agents and wiretap its communications. This designation is also a necessary step before a party can be declared “extremist”, as has happened to the AfD today.
The German deep state has long recognized that it is more expedient to use Die Linke as a tool against the rising popularity of the AfD than to fight it. In violation of parliamentary precedent, the Bundestag recently elected Gregor Gysi of Die Linke, who was the last chairman of East Germany’s Communist state party, as its Father of the House. Gysi had previously uploaded a bizarre video in which he wore a balaclava with the Antifa code “161” written on it.
In the eastern state of Thuringia, a patriotic stronghold under AfD hardliner Björn Höcke, the Social Democrats, Greens, and Christian Democrats in the state’s legislature teamed up with Die Linke to found the left-wing organization “Thadine”. The board of this state-funded “NGO” is currently controlled by local Die Linke politicians and spews anti-AfD propaganda.
Double Standards with Left-Wing Extremism.
While the Antifa consensus, which stretches from the Christian Democrats to Die Linke, may seem a veritable threat to Germany’s salvation, there is hope that the current wave of repression won’t last. It was through a leaked Zoom conference with Green and Social Democratic members of the Bundestag late last year, that the German public learned that behind the tough rhetoric of progressive deep state actors there is deep-seated insecurity.
Renate Künast, a Green politician who had called for permanent funding of Antifa groups in the Bundestag, emphasized how difficult it is to persuade the Federal Constitutional Court to ban a political party. If the government and its spy agency OPC do not cooperate fully, there is a great risk that the case will be lost and the AfD will be legitimized.
Whether the designated Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, a member of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party CSU, will play ball remains to be seen. Dobrindt belongs to the conservative wing of his party and has regularly clashed with more progressive forces in order to accommodate his constituents.
Uncertain Path to Banning AfD.
Ultimately, the Federal Constitutional Court will have the final say on whether or not the AfD will be banned. In contrast to political parties, which are rightly despised by a large majority, the Constitutional Court enjoys an unusually high level of approval.
Its composition, however, is fully representative of the Federal Republic of Germany: Every judge was handpicked by the parties in power.
