Lawsuit against the protection of the constitution: AfD suffers setback in court

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Lawsuit against the protection of the constitution
AfD suffers setback in court

The AfD complains against the fact that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution can classify it as a suspected case and publicly announce the number of members of the so-called "wing". The party claims the number is fictitious. The Cologne administrative court, however, sees it differently.

In a lawsuit against the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD suffered a setback in court. The Cologne Administrative Court refused to issue an interim regulation. The AfD had requested that the court should forbid the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) to announce that the so-called "wing" of the AfD had around 7,000 members until its dissolution and that its membership would continue to be 7,000. The constitution protection had classified the wing as extremist.

At the same time, the AfD had applied for an interim regulation to be issued pending a decision on this urgent application. Otherwise it threatens irreparable damage in political competition. The figure of 7,000 was fictitious, according to the AfD. The announcement of the number would have a stigmatizing and defamatory effect, because the "wing" would be given a meaning that it really does not have.

However, the court denied the request. It justified this with the fact that the likely consequences of becoming aware of the number 7000 were minor. The number of members of 7,000 had already been made public earlier, so it can be found in the constitutional protection report.

The Cologne Administrative Court has not yet decided on another application from the AfD. The point is that the protection of the Constitution should be prohibited from classifying the party as a suspected case. In this matter, the court gave the BfV until Wednesday at 12 noon to comment.

The Cologne law firm Höcker, which represents the AfD in the lawsuit, will no longer work with the former President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen. Maaßen may be considered as a witness in the proceedings and is therefore giving up his advisory activity for Höcker prematurely, the law firm said.

AfD regional association also wants to sue

After the Federal AfD, meanwhile, the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt also wants to check whether it is taking legal action against possible classifications by the protection of the constitution. The state executive will have a special meeting on Tuesday evening, said state chief Martin Reichardt of the German press agency.

The reason for this are reports that the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been observing the party for a few days using intelligence services. Reichardt thinks it is likely that his party will complain against the classification by the protection of the Constitution: "I assume that – as in similar cases in the federal government and other countries – we will take legal action."

At the latest interior ministers' conference a month ago, the President of the Constitutional Protection Office, Thomas Haldenwang, announced that a decision would probably be made in January to classify the entire AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist case across the country. With a view to the ongoing proceedings in Cologne, however, the domestic secret service recently announced that it would not disclose anything in this matter for the time being.