Surveillance of Alternative für Deutschland party officials violates laws protecting politicians from state persecution and is “endangering democracy”, AfD leader Björn Höcke argued on Monday.
Earlier this month, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a political spy agency, under the direction of the now former far-left Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, classified the anti-mass migration AfD party as a “right-wing extremist” organisation over its stance against the open borders agenda of the Berlin establishment.
The move allows the government to wiretap party officials’ communications and deploy “informants” to spy on the party’s internal operations. The “extremist” classification has also been seen as a potential first step toward banning the second-largest party in the country. While the move has been temporarily suspended amid legal challenges, regional branches of the AfD, including in Thuringia, have been formally classified as “extremists” and thus are currently open to surveillance from authorities.
On Monday, Thuringia state leader for the AfD, Björn Höcke, one of the most powerful and controversial figures within the party, published a 62-page legal argument against what he called a “massive attack on democracy” by targeting the main opposition party to the government, German daily Die Welt reports.
Höcke, flanked by constitutional law expert Michael Elicker and AfD Saxony leader Jörg Urban in a Berlin press conference, noted that the state constitutions of both Thuringia and Saxony have strong legal protections for politicians, including those for the protection of the opposition and for members of parliament in general.
He argued that the so-called indemnity clauses protect against state persecution in the manner pushed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution; therefore, the agency’s surveillance of the AfD may represent a violation of the law.
Except in the instances of defamatory comments, the state constitutions state that members of parliament cannot be prosecuted or face other state penalties for expressing political viewpoints.
AfD Launches Lawsuit Against Extremist Classification Allegedly Rushed Through in Final Days of Outgoing Leftist Governmenthttps://t.co/jJ2bDmEcan
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 5, 2025
This protection, they argued, should specifically have protected Höcke as a member of the Thuringia state parliament from prosecution over breaches of Section 86a of the German Criminal Code, which prohibits the use of symbols associated with unconstitutional organisations, such as those tied to the Nazi regime.
The Thuringia leader has been convicted multiple times by courts in Halle for using the slogan “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany), which despite long predating the Second World War, came to be associated with the “Brownshirts” paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. Höcke denied being aware of the slogan’s connotations and claimed it was a “common saying” and has vowed to challenge convictions at the Constitutional Court.
The AfD politician said Monday he plans to launch an investigation against the local branch of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia and its president Stephan Kramer for potential abuse of office. While the announcement predominantly pertained to AfD branches in Thuringia and Saxony, Höcke said that he expected his report and legal arguments would likely “be used in legal disputes at the federal level” as well.
He said that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is “snooping” against the “completely peaceful” AfD for having a “different opinion” and that the surveillance of the party in Thuringia and Saxony should “stop immediately”.
Meanwhile, nearly two weeks after the announcement of the “extremist” classification, the government has still refused to release the document of supposed evidence of transgressing against the German constitution by the AfD. Leaks have, however, claimed that the political spy agency’s document accuses the party of having an “entrenched xenophobic attitude”.
German States Look to Ban AfD Members from Serving as Police or Civil Servantshttps://t.co/Pru4EmdzTw
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 4, 2025
